Wendy Williams‘ family is speaking out.
The 59-year-old former host of The Wendy Williams Show‘s loved ones issued a statement for the first time in a cover story for People.
Keep reading to find out more…
“We’ve all seen the images over the last few months — and, really, few years — of what has seemed like a spiral for my aunt,” says her niece Alex Finnie, who also appears in the new Lifetime documentary, Where Is Wendy Williams?, premiering this weekend (February 24).
“It was shocking and heartbreaking to see her in this state.”
The documentary follows her attempt to launch a comeback with a podcast, but ultimately ended up capturing her struggle with alcohol addiction and health issues, including Graves’ disease and lymphedema.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on,” her driver says at one point in the documentary. “I think she’s losing memory. She doesn’t know who I am sometimes.”
The documentary crew stopped filming in April of 2023, and she entered a facility to treat “cognitive issues,” her manager and jeweler Will Selby says in the documentary. Her son reveals in the documentary that doctors have connected these issues to alcohol use.
She 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, via People.
Her family also says they don’t know where she is and cannot call her themselves, but she can call them.
“The people who love her cannot see her,” says Wendy‘s sister and Alex‘s mom Wanda. “I think the big [question] is: How the hell did we get here?”
Wendy claims in the documentary that her appointed guardian has stolen money from her. The documentary filmmakers say she didn’t provide evidence.
She also previously spent time in Miami with her family, where son Kevin Jr. says he kept her away from alcohol and had her eating vegan and working with a trainer.
“I said [to the producers], ‘No, she’s not coming back up because she needs to get better.’ I made sure that business was always on the back burner and that health was the number one priority,” he says in the documentary.
In February 2022, the show announced that she would not return for the remainder of the season. That May, an independent legal guardian was appointed to oversee her finances and health, and her family still doesn’t know why.
“All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way, and they walked out, and the family is completely excluded,” Wanda says.
“How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who’s in and out of the hospital?” Wanda asks. “How is that system better than the system the family could put in place? This system is broken.”
“There is not a person in this family who doesn’t want the same thing for Wendy, and that is her health,” Wanda says. Alex adds, “She can’t wait to start the next chapter of her life.”
For the full story, head to People.com.
