TV presenter gives update on health

On January 16, 2025By Littum

Wendy Williams is opening up in her first live interview since a bombshell Lifetime documentary gave a look into her life after her frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.

The former talk show host, 60, called into The Breakfast Club Thursday morning with guest host Loren LoRosa and fixtures DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God — Charlamagne hosted a radio show with Williams in the 2000s.

Charlamagne said Williams called into the show because she was “trapped in a conservatory” and couldn’t leave where she was.

“I’m not cognitively impaired. But I feel like I’m in prison,” Williams said. “I’m in this place where people are in their 90s and 80s and 70s. There’s something wrong with these people here on this floor.”

Williams added, “This system is broken,” and that her treatment amounts to “emotional abuse.”

Wendy Williams’ niece backs her up

Williams and her niece Alex, who was also on the call, said the facility is high security. And because her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, has her previous phone, she can only make calls, meaning no one can call her. “They won’t allow you to leave or have visitors,” she said. “So you can’t even leave and go for a walk if you wanted to or take a trip or visit family members.”

“It’s been the reality since 2023,” Alex said. “She sits in the room she sits in, she’s there every day, every hour of the day, every week, every month, she doesn’t get proper sunlight. I went to New York in October to visit her. And the level of security and the level of questions that were in the form of, ‘Who am I here?’ I mean, it was absolutely just horrible.”

In addition to her phone being taken, Williams said she can’t make purchases and has to have someone get everything for her. Williams added that she wants to visit her 94-year-old father for his birthday in February, but is afraid her guardian won’t allow her to go. “At 94, the day after that is not promised,” she said, crying.

Alex confirmed that she believes Morrissey may retaliate because of what was said in the interview.

“I said, ‘You know, we’re doing this, you ready for what’s on the other side?’ And as she said, ‘I have to do this,'” Williams’ niece said. “She’s prepared for her phone to be taken away. What you’re hearing now is a few minutes of clips of what we’ve been dealing with for the last months and the last two, three years.”

Alex said the family was not allowed to see her during the airing of her Lifetime documentary, “Where’s Wendy Williams?” and did not know where she was. She said the family is afraid she may be moved without notice or the ability to contact her.

Williams was spotted in August for the first time since her private legal and medical problems became public in early 2024.

Williams’ representatives said in February that she was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2023. In a follow-up statement to USA TODAY at the time, they said Williams is “able to do many things for herself” and was involved in the selection process for her care team.

Morrissey later stated in a lawsuit that the TV host had become “cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated.”

The filing is part of a lawsuit against A+E Networks over the Lifetime documentary, in which Morrissey has alleged that Williams was unable to consent to being filmed for the documentary.

Starring: Edward Segarra

This story is in development.