Wendy Williams, the former talk show host who has been battling various health issues, opened up about her life and career in the first part of Lifetime’s four-part documentary “Where is Wendy Williams?”
The documentary, which started aired last week from Saturday, featured interviews with Williams’ family, friends, co-workers, and medical team, who shared their insights and concerns about her condition and situation.
Her sister, Wanda, was among those who agreed to appear in the doc. She said,
“It has been a long journey in terms of the experience for our family and for Wendy. I hope to come out of this letting people see the love that we have as a family together for each other as well as the love we have for Wendy, and to understand the journey we’ve been through that has not always been perfect.”
Wendy Williams was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a rare and progressive brain disorder that affects personality, language, and behavior. She also suffers from Graves’ disease, which is termed an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland.
The 59-year-old had had trouble recalling that her popular talk show, The Wendy Williams Show, had been canceled in June 2022, and her niece, Alex Finnie, had to convince her of the news each time she relapses.
Finnie had once told CNN that “it took a little bit of convincing and conversations with the powers that be from her show for her to really understand that the show is no more.”
In the documentary, she opened up on how she didn’t catch on fast about her aunt’s dementia and that it wasn’t until her family revealed it to her that the pieces started falling into place.
“All I know is that it was dementia. You look back at little things and it’s a slow roll, right? It’s little things like, ‘When’s your birthday again?’ ‘What’s his name again?’ But after seeing my aunt and really spending time with her in the state where she’s in right now, I quickly realized that things were just not normal. It’s heartbreaking.”
The documentary exposed how the former talk show host almost died in 2020, when she was hospitalized for severe anemia caused by her drinking, and that her friend DJ Boof was the one who alerted the family and saved her life.
It also revealed that Williams was under a financial guardianship, which was imposed by a court in 2022, after her ex-husband filed a lawsuit claiming that she was incapable of managing her own affairs. Williams felt “trapped” by the guardianship, and said that she had “no money” left.
You can watch all parts of the Wendy Williams’ documentary on Lifetime.
