Wendy Williams calls guardianship ‘a prison’ in rare interview for ‘The Breakfast Club’

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In a rare interview after a series of health problems and a financial guardianship, former daytime TV host Wendy Williams appeared on “The Breakfast Club” radio show, denying that she is cognitively impaired, lamenting her lack of access to her family and shooting over the guardian. as “broken” and “a prison”.

Key facts

Williams called in”The Breakfast ClubThursday morning, where she said she’s “not cognitively impaired” and asked the hosts, “Do I look the hell like that?”

Williams called her economical guardian– which she was placed in by a judge in 2022 after her bank, Wells Fargo, blocked her accounts-a “prison” and “emotional abuse” that states she does not have access to her money, a cell phone, laptop or other technology, and that she cannot receive phone calls from anyone.

Williams called the guardianship system “broken” and choked up as she said she is not sure if she will be allowed to see her father, who she said turns 94 next month, for his birthday, while her niece Alex Finnie, who appeared on the program with her, said her family wants Williams free and to live with “dignity”.

Williams and Finnie said the former TV host cannot leave her room without permission and has little contact with other people, outside of “nurses” who come to her room and give her pills, which Williams said she “doesn’t know” what they are for.

The interview comes nearly a year after Lifetime released a four-part docuseries, “Where’s Wendy Williams?” which Williams said she watched, though she declined to comment further when host Charlamagne Tha God asked her thoughts on the series.

What did Williams say about Sean “diddy” Combs?

Charlamagne Tha God asked Williams about Combs, who is being held in jail after the rap mogul was hit with dozens of lawsuits alleging rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking. “Diddy done,” Williams said, echoing an insult by 50 Cent, who often clapped back at Combs, adding, “Diddy’s gonna go to prison for life, guys. You don’t know the things I knew about Diddy back then, and do you know what? It’s about time.” Williams’ fans, including Charlamagne Tha God, have long speculated whether Williams knew about Combs’ behavior, and the “Breakfast Club” host and former Combs bodyguard Renegotiation has both previously claimed in interviews, Combs played a role in Williams being fired from his Hot 97 radio job in the 1990s.

Key background

Williams, a former radio host and host of the daytime “Wendy Williams Show” from 2008 to 2021, largely disappeared from the public eye after her show was canceled due to reported health problems. Williams had previously disclosed Graves’ disease and hyperthyroidism diagnoses. Wells Fargo froze Williams’ accounts in January 2022, and a judge appointed a financial guardian for Williams four months later, after Wells Fargo allegedly called her an “incapacitated person” in a letter to a judge. Williams’ attorney, LaShawn Thomas, said at the time Williams “vehemently denies all allegations about her mental health and well-being” and claimed that Wells Fargo had “unlawfully” frozen her accounts. Representatives of Williams said in February 2024 that she was diagnosed with “progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia”, adding in a press release that questions about her condition were raised when she began to “slurp words, at times behave erratically and have difficulty understand financial transactions.” Williams’ guardian, Sabrina Morrisey, filed suit against A&E Television Networks and Lifetime over the four-part docuseries that aired last year, claiming Williams was unable to consent to being filmed. In a court hearing in November as part of the trial, Morrisey called Williams “cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated.”

Further reading

Wendy Williams is ‘cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated’, says guardian (NBC News)