If You're Not Worried About Wendy Williams Yet, Here Are The Reasons You Should Be

It has been a bumpy road for daytime talk show host Wendy Williams, especially since her namesake program shut down — although there are some "Wendy Williams Show" moments we will never forget. When Williams disappeared from the public eye around 2022, nervous fans could only speculate about where the beloved diva was. But when we finally found out what was going on with Williams, it was still hard to believe. Receiving the dual diagnoses of primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2023, Williams was also issued into a conservatorship. Whereas this alone might be cause to worry about the health and wellness of Williams, the story is still twisting out and getting more lurid as it goes.

When Williams made a major public reemergence in 2024, her fans took notice of how healthy she appeared. At the time she released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter indicating she was enjoying her time away from the public eye. Part of it read, "I continue to need personal space and peace to thrive." But when Williams made a bombshell call into "The Breakfast Club" in January of 2025, her tune had certainly changed. After the rather exploitative documentary "Where is Wendy Williams?" aired on Lifetime, it got the ball in motion for Williams to finally start pushing her way out of her conservatorship by highlighting several reasons we should all be concerned for her.

When calling into "The Breakfast Club," Wendy Williams gave her hot take on rapper Diddy's arrest, while using the opportunity to lambast her current living situation. Under her conservatorship and being given the double whammy dementia and aphasia diagnoses, Williams was placed in a rather restrictive care facility. Not only are visitors unable to access her, but according to Williams, her conservator Sabrina Morrissey has only provided her with a phone unable to accept incoming calls or have access to the internet. Williams said, "I feel like I am in prison."

Beyond her current isolation, Williams is unhappy with the facility she's housed in as it appears to be an elder care institution instead of a legitimate place to treat her. Williams, who herself is in her 60s, continued, "I'm in this place where the people are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s. There's something wrong with these people here on this floor."

Williams' own niece, Alex Finnie, admitted to trying to visit her aunt and found it to be overly difficult to get through the stringent security. "I went to ... visit her. And the level of security and the level of questions ... of, 'Who am I? Why am I here? What's the purpose?' I mean, it was absolutely just horrible." But it wasn't just Williams and Finnie who noticed things were off, TMZ also made a documentary of their own for the daytime host.

In the TubiTV documentary "TMZ Presents: Saving Wendy Williams," TMZ's own founder, Harvey Levin, goes to the facility where Wendy Williams is being housed to further explore her claims of mistreatment. One of the surprising things Williams and Britney Spears share is a very strict guardianship that's difficult and costly to get out of — though luckily Spears was eventually able to wiggle out of hers. However, what Levin discovered during his interviews with Williams is that her guardianship is possibly even denying her crucial medical care.

When Levin asked Williams when she last saw a doctor, the former television host said, "A long while." Williams claims she hasn't seen anyone who can assess her mental state since she arrived at the facility in New York a few months prior to the interview, nor during her time at a separate spot in Connecticut for a whole year. However, Williams has reason to want to get a second opinion now that she seems to be regaining some of her faculties.

"I'm not incapacitated," Williams said in reference to the court filings her conservator Sabrina Morrissey submitted, which claimed Williams was "cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated." The lack of access to medical professionals who can check on Williams is ultimately concerning as there's evidence that Williams' diagnosis could have been inaccurate.

According to Leah Croll, a neurologist in New York City, there could have been a reason for Wendy Williams' erratic behavior that led to her financial loss and by extension, led to her conservatorship (via People). Williams' history of abusing alcohol and other drugs could have contributed to her presenting as a person with aphasia and deep memory loss. Croll even admitted that being able to determine if a patient has dementia or is struggling with the effects of alcoholism isn't easy. Since Williams has been sober for a while and is also showing signs of mental clarity, this suggests it might be time for a reassessment. If Williams can access the care.

It does seem that Sabrina Morrissey, Williams' guardian, might also be keen to do this. On February 5, Morrissey officially applied for a "new medical evaluation" for Williams. This is also on the heels of Morrissey pursuing legal action against A&E — the parent company of Lifetime — for the documentary "Where is Wendy Williams?" According to Morrissey, the lawsuit is intended to "recover substantial monetary damages for the benefit of [Williams]," which seems like a good sign, but Morrissey is possibly trying to remain in control. In the filing Morrissey mentions, "The issue of whether [Williams] has the capacity to assess what is in her own best interests deserves renewed careful consideration by qualified experts, and should not be left to careless speculation in tabloids, radio, or on the Internet."

While being interviewed by Harvey Levin for "TMZ Presents: Saving Wendy Williams," Wendy Williams got honest about how tragic her real life is. When Levin asked her (via Daily Mail), "Are you allowed to go out?" Williams responded with a heartfelt, "No, no. I am not allowed to go out." Williams then detailed how she has repeatedly asked Sabrina Morrissey for her own phone back or at least an iPad. It seems Morrissey has placed intensive restrictions on Williams, even as Williams shows signs of recovery. But when Levin asked Williams about how often she gets to go outside, it was a huge revelation.

"In the last 30 days I went out twice," Williams answered, acknowledging that both times were for going to the dentist and nothing else. When Williams mentioned this, Levin pointed out that according to the judge who handed Morrissey the guardianship of Williams, Morrissey is "to permit Wendy as much independence as is practical." At this, both Williams and Levin seemed to acknowledge that the current state of living for Williams is far from independent. "This system has failed from top to bottom regarding this guardian and everybody involved with that," Williams spouted before continuing with, "I want my freedom back. How about that?" With the help of her family, Williams just might get what she wants.

Even after the fallout between Williams and her son, it became apparent her family was ready to step up. According to the Daily Mail, her family is now looking for a new lawyer to get her out of her current guardianship. In an official statement, her family says they want "to address the current circumstances surrounding her guardianship and her ongoing journey toward reclaiming her self-determination." Not only are they seeking out the Ben Crump Law Firm to take over the proceedings, the family is also raising funds to essentially buy Williams out of her current position.

Per Daily Mail, a GoFundMe was launched to raise the money needed to release Williams from her guardianship, as well as get her out of the clutches of attorney Roberta Kaplan. Kaplan was largely responsible for claiming that Williams was unfit to care for herself. Williams herself responded to TMZ saying, "How would she know that? I've never met Roberta Kaplan and I have never talked with her. I'm isolated and locked away in a luxury prison."

According to TMZ's Harvey Levin, after he interviewed her he admitted that "the Wendy Williams that I spoke to today is the same Wendy Williams that I knew 10 years ago ... She was lucid, she was articulate, she was with it, and she was opinionated." It's good to see Williams make a comeback, hopefully she can fully find her way out from under her guardianship.