Tragic Details About Wendy Williams' Life Since She Left Her Talk Show

The end of "The Wendy Williams Show" was reportedly just as dramatic as its 14-year run. According to a 2022 investigation by the Hollywood Reporter, the hit talk show's executives grew increasingly concerned about host Wendy Williams' health struggles in September 2021. At that point, her illnesses had caused several delays to the bumper 13th season, and higher-ups believed that their staff could greatly benefit from hearing an update from her — ideally on a video call. What was meant to bring clarity to everyone who worked on the show only made things more confusing as Williams seemed incoherent. 

"People were sort of freaked out," Lonnie Burstein, Executive VP of Programming for Debmar-Mercury, the company that produced "The Wendy Williams Show," divulged. "She was saying things like, 'Oh, I can't wait, I'll be back with you really soon,' but it was obvious to anyone watching that she was not going to be back really soon." The following year was even harder as they brought in guest stars to hold the fort down while Williams recuperated from health issues that weren't fully communicated with them. 

After tons of back and forth, they finally pulled the plug on the talk show in 2022. In a 2024 interview with CNN, Williams' niece and goddaughter, Alex Finnie, shared that she had broken the news to her, and sadly the TV personality hadn't accepted it initially. "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," Finnie recalled. Unfortunately, Williams' difficult life only grew more tragic after the show ended. 

In February 2022, People reported that Wendy Williams was embroiled in a legal battle with Wells Fargo. In court filings obtained by the publication, the former talk show host alleged that the bank was barring Williams from accessing her substantial assets, including the millions of dollars she had stored in her accounts. The beloved TV personality suggested that Wells Fargo may have even frozen her accounts because of Williams' former financial advisor Lori Schiller's claim that she was of "unsound mind." In response, the bank filed documents clarifying, "Wells Fargo has strong reason to believe that [Williams] is the victim of undue influence and financial exploitation." 

The bank also sought to have her placed under financial guardianship, and their request was ultimately granted. However, the former talk show host's financial struggles were far from over. During a 2025 appearance on "The Breakfast Club," Williams claimed that she only had access to $15 of her multi-million-dollar fortune. Further, she didn't even have the option to select necessities like a specific hairbrush and had to accept whatever her guardian picked out.

However, in a chat with People, an insider acknowledged that Wells Fargo had a fair reason for keeping her finances locked, noting that they "discovered that a family member in Florida was attempting to improperly access her money without authorization." It seemed like the family member was Williams' son, Kevin Hunter Jr., who once lived in Florida, but he denied trying to unfairly access his mother's money in the "Where Is Wendy Williams?" docuseries.

We finally got answers on Wendy Williams' ongoing struggles via a February 2024 press release that confirmed that she had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). And fans only grew more concerned about her well-being after "Where Is Wendy Williams?" aired. Many viewers pointed out that the beloved TV personality seemed out of it throughout her appearances, but others found one scene particularly tragic. In it, Williams apparently forgot the location of a smoke shop she frequented when she worked on her talk show, which was fairly close to the set. 

It seemed like her health had deteriorated further by November as Williams' guardian, Sabrina E. Morrissey, filed court documents to proclaim that she was "cognitively impaired, permanently disabled and legally incapacitated," per People. However, just a month later, a clip surfaced on Instagram of Williams apparently looking happy and healthy while actively having a conversation. People flooded the comments with questions about whether she had actually deteriorated as much as they had been made to believe. In fact, during her 2025 appearance on "The Breakfast Club," Williams outright denied being " incapacitated." 

However, in a statement to CNN, her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, argued that her dementia diagnosis had led a state court to decide she needed a guardian to make financial and legal decisions that served her best interests. "As anyone who has had a family member with dementia knows, Wendy has both good days and bad days," Kaplan wrote, adding, "It is truly a shame that there is so much voyeuristic attention to this right now."

In September 2024, Wendy Williams' guardian, Sabrina E. Morrissey, took Lifetime's parent company, A&E Television Networks, and others associated with "Where's Wendy Williams?" to court over the docuseries, which she deemed exploitative of its subject. In court documents obtained by People, Morrissey charged, "This case arises from the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit [Williams]." The guardian slammed them for only paying the former talk show host $82,000 despite receiving a hefty paycheck from the series that revolved around her life. 

Additionally, Morrissey posited that Williams wasn't cognizant enough to understand that the docuseries would feature heartbreaking moments that she assumed would be kept private upon initially consenting to being filmed. It's worth noting that Morrissey also attempted to stop the documentary's release altogether through court filings earlier in the year. Then, in November, Page Six reported that A+E Networks and Lifetime had countersued Williams' guardian and questioned her motives for bringing the lawsuit against them in the first place. 

"It was only when Morrissey realized that the documentary would question the quality of her own guardianship of [Williams] that Morrissey suddenly decided to try to ensure the documentary would never be released," their court filings read. They also professed that Morrissey's real motivation for the filing was to prevent people from commenting on her poor guardianship of Williams. The court documents listed out several of Morrissey's failures, including her inability to curb the beloved media personality's alcoholism and worsening her mental health by keeping Williams from her family.

Wendy Williams disclosed on "The Breakfast Club" that she had been living in a care facility for three years, surrounded by people significantly older than her. The former talk show host sadly spent her days confined to her room, watching TV, with no internet access. Even Williams' contact with her family was severely limited because they couldn't reach her. The beloved TV personality teared up while admitting that she was unsure if she would even be allowed to visit her father to celebrate his 94th birthday in February. She didn't have her two rescue cats, Chit Chat and My Way, to keep her company either because Williams' guardian informed her that they were "gone," per People. 

However, a source asserted that Williams' dementia had prevented her from caring about the cats or remembering the fact that she told people "she doesn't give a f*** about them." Additionally, the former talk show host detailed on "The Breakfast Club" that she was taking seven pills daily without any knowledge of their purpose. Given all this, it's unsurprising that Williams stated, "I feel like I'm in prison."

 In a July 2024 chat with People, her sister, Wanda Finnie, claimed that her guardian hadn't even informed Williams' family that she was being checked into a treatment facility in the first place, or provided any subsequent updates about her health. After noting that the beloved media personality was thriving under their care in Florida, she confessed to being utterly bewildered by her swiftly deteriorating health.

"Where Is Wendy Williams?" revealed that Wendy Williams had been dealing with alcoholism for quite some time. The docuseries featured a devastating scene where her manager, Will Selby, finds an empty bottle in her home and questions if she drank the entire thing by noon. First, the former talk show host answers in the affirmative but then Williams quickly changes her answer to the contrary. As Selby insinuated that drinking may not be the best for her health, his charge got visibly defensive and swore at him. In another scene, Selby shared that he frequently checked her home to find any alcohol bottles that Williams might have hidden away. 

The docuseries also featured tons of footage of the former talk show host consuming alcohol and her manager informing the crew that they couldn't film because she was so hungover. Despite everything, Williams insisted that she doesn't have a drinking problem and made it clear that she had no intentions of getting sober either. When the producers inquired about the reason behind her drinking, she only answered, "Because I can. Just because I care for it," per Fox News. Meanwhile, her son Kevin Hunter Jr. hinted that Williams' messy divorce from her ex-husband Kevin Hunter Sr. may have exacerbated her alcohol consumption. 

He also claimed that alcohol may have been to blame for her ongoing health issues, pointing out, "[Doctors] basically said that because she was drinking so much, it was starting to affect her headspace and her brain. So, I think they said it was alcohol-induced dementia," per Page Six. Further, Williams revealed that her relationship with her son had also fractured because of her drinking habits.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).