Wendy Williams’ family is hitting back at claims the 60-year-old media personality is “cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated.”
The suggestions were made by Williams’ court-appointed guardian Sabrina Morrissey as part of a recent court filing in Morrissey’s legal battle with Lifetime over the 2024 documentary Where is Wendy Williams?
But Williams’ family members say the former talk show host is actually doing much better than her guardian suggests.
“She is more clear now than she’s ever been throughout the guardianship, which is a problem for some,” a family insider told Daily Mail in an article published this week.
Related: Lifetime Producers Sue Wendy Williams’ Guardian, Saying She ‘Failed’ Star
Williams was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) back in 2023.
A year before her diagnosis, in 2022 she was placed under guardianship after Wells Fargo Bank filed a petition to a New York court amid concerns that the radio legend was the victim of financial exploitation.
Filming of Where is Wendy Williams? started in August 2022. Lifetime said the documentary was originally going to be about the TV personality’s “comeback” and the launch of her podcast after her popular daytime talk show was canceled amid Williams’ health problems.
But the focus changed as Williams’ health deteriorated, and instead centered on Williams’ heavy drinking and struggles with mental health. Producers ended production in April 2023, after Williams entered a treatment facility.
Where is Wendy Williams? was produced by Entertainment One (eOne) and Creature Films for Lifetime. Executive producers included Wendy Williams, Kevin Hunter Jr., Will Selby, Tara Long, Mark Ford, Pat Lambert, Erica Hanson, and Brie Miranda Bryant.
Like Lifetime, Entertainment One and Creature Films, along with its president, Mark Ford, have filed suits against Morrissey.
In its complaint, Entertainment One denied allegations that the company short-changed Williams by only paying her $82,000 for the documentary.
The production company said it paid Williams “approximately $400,000 for her participation” via her company, The Wendy Experience, Inc.
Where is Wendy Williams? aired on Feb. 24 on Lifetime, though four days earlier on Feb. 20, Morrissey filed an unsuccessful restraining order against Lifetime’s parent company A&E Networks to try and stop the film from airing.
In Lifetime’s latest filing, the network argued that Morrissey wanted to block the documentary’s release because it made her look bad.
It’s also worth mentioning that Williams did speak with the Daily Mail in October. At the time, she said the documentary “sucked,” while noting that she’s “doing well.”
