Wendy Williams' Family Break Their Silence on Her 'Shocking and Heartbreaking' Struggles Over the Past 3 Years (Exclusive)

The former talk show host’s sister, niece and brother reveal the battle over her future in this week’s PEOPLE cover story

It’s been two and a half years since Wendy Williams asked her about the end of “How Are You?” on TV, and since then the big personality has remained largely silent as rumors about her well-being have swirled.

Now ex The Wendy Williams Show The host’s family is speaking out for the first time in this week’s PEOPLE cover story about what happened during this dark time, as Williams’ life turned into exactly the kind of drama she once gossiped about during her Hot Topics segment.

“We’ve all seen pictures over the last few months — and, actually, a few years — of what seemed like a spiral for my aunt,” says Williams’ niece Alex Finnie, who also appears in the new Lifetime documentary, Where is Wendy Williams? premiere on February 24. “It was shocking and heartbreaking to see her in this state.”

PEOPLE cover by Wendy Williams.

When the Lifetime documentary crew began filming in August 2022, they set out to follow Williams’ comeback as she prepared to launch a new podcast. The film quickly evolved into something else entirely, as the crew caught Williams (who was an executive producer on the project) in the throes of alcohol addiction and struggling with health issues including Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that can cause swollen eyes, and lymphedema, a condition that causing her feet to swell.

A particularly poignant scene shows Williams – who turns 60 in July – asking her driver to take her past her ex The Wendy Williams Show studio, forgetting that he had done so only moments earlier.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on,” her driver says in the documentary. “I think he’s losing his memory. Sometimes he doesn’t know who I am.”

Where is Wendy Williams? The shocking document reveals the star’s struggles with money problems, health problems and alcohol

The documentary crew stopped filming Williams in April 2023. That month, she entered a treatment facility for “cognitive issues,” according to her manager and jeweler Will Selby in the film. Her son reveals in the documentary that doctors linked these problems to alcohol consumption.

Williams remains in the facility to this day, and her family says a court-appointed legal guardian is the only person who has unfettered access to her.

Wendy Williams is being pushed in a wheelchair in September 2021.

BACKGRID

Her family says they don’t know where she is and can’t call her themselves, but she can call them.

“People who love her can’t see her,” says Wendy’s sister and Alex’s mom Wanda, 65. “I think she’s big [question] is: How the hell did we get here?”

All about Wendy Williams’ son Kevin Hunter Jr.

In the fall of 2021, season 13 of her eponymous show was delayed several times before moving forward without Williams and with a rotation of celebrity guest hosts, including Leah Remini and Sherri Shepherd. In early 2022, Wells Fargo froze her accounts after her then-financial advisor claimed she was “mentally disturbed,” according to Williams’ court filings. The bank successfully petitioned a New York court to place Williams under temporary financial conservatorship, allegedly because she was at risk of financial exploitation due to cognitive issues.

Williams’ 23-year-old son Kevin Hunter Jr., whom she shares with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, has come under scrutiny for his spending, but in the documentary he adamantly denies abusing her: “I never took [money] without her consent.” (Kevin Jr. declined to comment for this story; Wanda says he is still financially supported by his mother.)

Wendy Williams and her son Kevin Jr. in Florida in 2021.

Williams claims in the documentary that her guardian, whose identity is secret, stole her money. The filmmakers say she has not provided evidence, and neither her guardian nor Wells Fargo have responded to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

Amid the fight over her finances, Williams spent time in Miami with her family. There, Kevin Jr. she says he kept her away from alcohol and that she ate vegan and worked out with a trainer. Her family wanted to extend her visit, but they say the show disagreed.

” I said [to the producers], ‘No, he’s not coming back because he has to get better,’ says Kevin Jr. in the documentary. “I made sure that work always came second and that health was the number one priority.”

Wendy Williams was ‘never seriously considered’ to be invited back for final episode of Talk Show: Exposé

In February 2022, the series announced that Williams would not return until the end of the season. That May, an independent legal guardian was appointed to oversee her finances and health. Her family members say they don’t know why the court made that decision, and court records are sealed.

“All I know is that Wendy and her team went into the courtroom one way and they came out and the family was completely shut out,” Wanda says.

By June, The Wendy Williams Show was cancelled.

“Wendy loved doing the series,” says a production source. “The loss just broke her.”

Wendy Williams on her show in 2019.

Fox

For the Asbury Park, NJ, native — who first gained notoriety as a radio show jock in the ’90s —The Wendy Williams Show has been a source of pride since its debut in 2008. The show has developed an avid following, thanks in part to Williams’ uninhibited celebrity gossip.

“We were the little engine that could,” says a show source. “When we renewed every season, we were shocked. They say that a fish stinks from the head, but if it is big, the fish shines from the head. In this case, we all enjoyed Wendy’s brilliance.”

Wendy Williams reveals one topic she avoids in interviews: ‘I don’t ask that anymore’

Several sources say Williams struggled with drinking behind the scenes. “She would be drunk on air,” says a show source. “Slowly we started thinking, ‘What’s going on with her?'”

In 2017, she passed out in a Statue of Liberty costume during a Halloween episode, and later attributed it to her Graves’ disease in an interview with PEOPLE in 2018. “That was the first sign that something was really wrong,” her niece Alex, 33, says now. .

Wendy Williams passed out on her show in 2017.

Fox

Series co-executive producer Suzanne Bass also saw Williams’ problems. “I knew he was struggling. How could I not?” says Bass, whose husband was a stage manager. “As her situation worsened, she pushed us away.”

In March 2019, Williams revealed on the show that she was living in a sober living room, highlighting her past problems with cocaine. A month later, she filed for divorce from Hunter, 52, after 21 years of marriage, when it was discovered he had fathered a child with another woman. (Hunter declined to comment for this story.)

“[Wendy’s mom] Shirley, may she rest in peace, you’d always remind me that your aunt would sell everything she had—every penny, every car, every wig—so she could have a solid, loving household and a loving husband,” Alex says.” It was taken away from her right after her son had to go to college [in 2018]. Emotionally, it was just a lot. It was too much for her world.”

Williams’ brother, Tommy, agrees: “It put her back in that dark space.”

Wendy Williams teases return to spotlight in new podcast: ‘I’ll be back, trust me’

When the COVID suspension began in March 2020, Williams was isolated in her luxury apartment. In May 2020, her deejay DJ Boof says he found her unresponsive at home and she was rushed to the hospital where she needed several blood transfusions. That November, Williams’ mother, Shirley, died.

“When our mother, who was her biggest advocate and strongest supporter of anyone in this family, died, she never grieved,” says Wanda.

A month after the appointment of a guardian in 2022, Williams was caught on camera passing out in a Louis Vuitton store, drunk. She entered wellness for two months starting in September 2022, but the following March, after traveling to LA, Selby says in the documentary that she was “messed up” and adamant about her drinking.

Wendy Williams in March 2023.

T. JACKSON / BACKGRID

Producers say they stopped filming in April after finding Williams in her apartment with her eyes rolled back in her head and worked with Selby to encourage the caregiver to get Williams help. Executive producer Mark Ford says, “The guardian came and responded to our pleas… to get her to a safer place.”

“How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who is in and out of the hospital?” – asks Wanda. “How is that system better than the system that the family could set up? This system is broken.”

Right now, the power over when Williams can leave the facility, if at all, rests in the hands of her guardian.

The official YouTube, website and Instagram of ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ were taken down after the series finale

In the wake of high-profile cases like Britney Spears’, legal guardian and guardianship systems in the US are being re-examined. The New York State Assembly proposed legislation in 2022 to expedite the hearing process when a custody appeal is filed. (Williams’ family is not currently contesting her case.)

Ford says the filmmakers went ahead with the documentary to shed light on Williams’ situation: “We asked ourselves almost every day, ‘Is this helping Wendy or is this hurting her?’ And in the end we felt that it was helping her. This is about the custody system and how it can be improved.”

Despite the unknowns, Williams’ loved ones say they are focused on getting her better.

“There isn’t a person in this family who doesn’t want the same thing for Wendy, and that’s her health,” says Wanda. Alex adds: “He can’t wait to start the next chapter of his life.”

For more on Wendy Williams, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine, on newsstands everywhere Friday, or subscribe here.

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