FEARS FOR WENDY WILLIAMS, CLAIMS HAS ONLY $2 IN BIZARRE VIDEO
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
Wendy Williams, the former talk show host known for her catchphrase, “How you doin’?” has been under a court-ordered guardianship since 2022 after being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia.
However, the star is disputing both her diagnoses and need for a guardian. Williams calls her life a prison and accuses her guardian of emotional abuse.
After a successful trial run of The Wendy Williams Show, the talk show is broadcast internationally and garners 2.4 million daily viewers.
Williams trades off with Ellen DeGeneres as the number one female daytime television host for years. The daily show runs for 12 years straight while Williams starts her own reality TV production company with her manager, and husband, Kevin Hunter.
Williams’ health issues become apparent in the later years of The Wendy Williams Show. Williams has always been open about her cocaine addiction in the 80s and 90s, which she overcame with no treatment.
The host also diagnosed with Graves’ disease, which causes hyperthyroidism.
In 2017, Williams passes out during a taping of the show, and in the following years fills months of several seasons with guest hosts due to struggles with her health issues.
In 2019, after 20 years of marriage, Wendy Williams files for divorce from her manager and husband, Kevin Hunter, after discovering he fathered a child with another woman. Williams does not take the betrayal well and begins drinking heavily. Just before the divorce, Williams reveals she’s been in rehab for some time. During the treatment, Williams is diagnosed with alcohol-induced brain damage. By 2021, doctors say Williams, 57, has alcohol-induced dementia.
January 2022, Williams’ bank freezes her accounts after documenting a “pattern of unusual and disturbing” financial events. Wells Fargo requests a New York Supreme Court hearing to determine if Williams is in need of a guardian. A judge determines Williams’ is incapable of making informed decisions and appoints a temporary financial guardian, Sabrina Morrissey. Williams attempts to return to work in late November with plans to release a podcast, but the show never airs and by March 2023, Williams virtually disappears from the public.
Williams is now asking for the guardianship to end.
Joining Nancy Grace today
- Elizabeth J. McInturff - Attorney specializing in Guardianship Issues / Partner at Selzer Gurvitch; LinkedIn @elizabethmcinturff; Facebook @elizabeth.mcinturff.12
- Dr. John Delatorre - Licensed psychologist and mediator, specializing in forensic psychology, psychological consultant to Project Absentis: a non profit organization that searches for missing persons;Twitter, IG, and TikTok: @drjohndelatorre
- Tom Ruskin - Private Investigator, President of the CMP Protective and Investigative Group, Inc., Former New York City Police Detective Investigator; X @tomruskin
- Dr. Dennis C. Doherty - Addiction Specialist; Founder and Medical Director of Right Relief Health; specializing in Anesthesiology, Pain Management, Hospice and Palliative Medicine; Facebook @RightReliefHealth;
- James Vituscka - Senior US Showbiz Reporter at DailyMail.com; X and Instagram @james_vituscka
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:03.0 | Fears for superstar Wendy Williams, as she claims she has only $2 to her name in a bizarre video. |
| 0:16.0 | Is she living like a prisoner under a highly restrictive guardianship? |
| 0:23.6 | I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. Thank you for being with us. |
| 0:27.6 | Talk show host and media personality Wendy Williams wrapped up in a controversial |
| 0:31.6 | conservatorship denying her dementia diagnosis amidst a legal battle. Legal battle, that puts it, |
| 0:38.9 | very mildly claims that she is living like a prisoner in a highly restrictive guardianship with |
| 0:45.7 | only $2 to her name. As a matter of fact, let's hear from the horse's mouth. |
| 0:50.1 | I know what kind of money I have. Unfortunately, I only have $2. |
| 0:55.0 | $2 to her name. That is from Fat Joe's Insta. Now, what is happening with Wendy? |
| 1:04.0 | Listen. |
| 1:05.0 | I am not cognitively impaired. You know what I'm saying? No. But I feel like I am in prison. I'm in this place where the |
| 1:12.5 | people are in their 90s and their 80s. Wendy Williams, the former talk show host, known for her |
| 1:18.4 | catchphrase, How You Doing, has been under a court-ordered guardianship since 2022 after being |
| 1:25.1 | diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia and aphasia. |
| 1:28.3 | However, the star is disputing both her diagnosis and a need for a guardian. |
| 1:34.3 | Williams calls her life a prison and accuses her guardian of emotional abuse. |
| 1:39.3 | What is happening with Wendy Williams? |
| 1:43.3 | Is she suffering from a mental illness, a dementia, or is she |
| 1:49.6 | caught like a prisoner trapped in a highly restrictive conservatorship where people are just trying |
| 1:57.3 | to make money off Wendy Williams. |
| 2:06.3 | Joining me an All-Star panel to make sense of what we know tonight, you were just hearing from our friends at the Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 when Wendy called in straight out to |
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