Wendy Williams’ Family Feared She Could Die and That They’d Get ‘That Call’ amid Star’s Alcohol Abuse (Exclusive)

The curtain rises on a dark period in the life of Wendy Williams.

In the two and a half years since she appeared in what will be her last appearance on The The Wendy Williams Show in July 2021, the star, 59, has privately battled alcohol addiction and several health issues including Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that can cause puffy eyes, and lymphedema, a condition that causes her feet to swell.

“There have been times over the last year when everyone in this family has wondered if that was the call [that she was dead] was going to come in the middle of the night,” Wendy’s sister, Wanda, 65, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story. “Everyone in this family was on pins and needles every night with cell phones right next to the bed.”

PEOPLE cover by Wendy Williams.

A new life documentary, Where is Wendy Williams?, premiering February 24, features Williams in the midst of her struggles. When the documentary crew began filming in August 2022, it set out to follow Williams’ comeback after her show was canceled in June 2022 and as she prepared to launch a new podcast. It quickly developed into something completely different.

“She was already struggling with so many physical issues, and then it became clear that there were psychological issues and addiction issues that she was also struggling with,” says executive producer Mark Ford. “But she was adamant throughout that she wanted to tell this story. We asked ourselves almost every day, ‘Is this helping Wendy or hurting her?’ And in the end we felt that it was helping her.”

Throughout the film, Williams’ manager and jeweler Will Selby works hard to keep her away from alcohol, but notes that he can’t be with her in her New York apartment “24/7”. At one point, he finds a mostly empty vodka bottle in her house and asks Williams if she had a drink at lunch, to which she replies, “Y— you.”

“I think people bought into something and didn’t realize how big and serious it was,” says Williams’ niece and Wanda’s daughter Alex, 33.

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

During Williams’ visits to her family in Florida, Wanda says they had a strict “no-alcohol” policy, so she “started pushing everyone away,” including her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., 23.

“Wendy’s right when she says, ‘Wanda doesn’t want me to drink,'” Wanda says. “It wasn’t so much ‘I don’t want you to drink because drinking is bad,’ but drinking is not good for you.”

Sources say Williams struggled with drinking behind the scenes for a long time The Wendy Williams Show, which she first started leading in 2008. “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,” Alex says now.

Wendy Williams passed out on TV 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 had been living in a sober house, mentioning her past problems with cocaine during her rise to fame as a radio sensation in the ’90s.

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

A month later, she filed for divorce from her husband Kevin Hunter (52), after 21 years of marriage, when it was discovered that he 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 is being pushed in a wheelchair in 2021.

BACKGRID

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.

In May 2022, an independent legal guardian was appointed to oversee Williams’ finances and health. Her family members say they don’t know why the court made that decision, and court records are sealed.

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

The documentary crew stopped filming Williams in April 2023, after they found her in her apartment with her eyes rolled back in her head. They worked with Selby to encourage her legal guardian to seek help from Williams. That month, she entered a facility to treat “cognitive problems,” as Selby says in the documentary. Her son reveals in the film that doctors linked these problems to alcohol consumption.

“The guardian came and responded to our pleas … to take her to a safer place,” says Ford.

Wendy Williams in March 2023.

T. JACKSON / BACKGRID

Williams remains in the facility to this day, and her family says a caretaker is the only person who has unfettered access to her. Her family says they don’t know where she is and can’t call her themselves, but she can call them.

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

“All I want to know is that my sister is going to live and be healthy,” Wanda says.

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

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education