Wendy Williams is speaking out against her own legal guardian who stated last year that the former TV host is “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and legally incapacitated.”
The daytime talk personality, 60, asserted Thursday morning: “I am not cognitively impaired.” Williams and her niece Alex Finnie called into “The Breakfast Club” radio show, where they raised concerning allegations about Williams’ care under guardian Sabrina Morrissey.
“I feel like I’m imprisoned,” Williams said.
Williams was placed under financial guardianship amid a legal battle with Wells Fargo in 2022. Later that year, “The Wendy Williams Show” aired its final episode after 13 seasons. The daytime series was canceled amid its host’s physical, mental and financial struggles.
Since 2022, Williams has been receiving treatment at an unknown facility — a “luxury prison” in New York, her niece said Thursday. Williams and Finnie spoke to “The Breakfast Club” about allegedly tight security at the facility and accused Morrissey of keeping the former radio host from seeing and contacting her loved ones.
Morrissey’s role as Williams’ legal guardian garnered public attention last year ahead of Lifetime’s four-part documentary “Where Is Wendy Williams?” Before the documentary’s February release, news broke that Williams had been diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. That same week, Morrissey filed a lawsuit against the “Where Is Wendy Williams?” team, including Lifetime parent company A+E Networks. At the time, Morrissey requested a restraining order “prohibiting publication of [the] documentary,” but a New York judge gave Lifetime the green light to proceed.
Williams on Thursday shied away from questions about the documentary (“I don’t wanna watch that again,” “I don’t wanna talk about that”) and doubled down on her cognitive state. In a September legal filing, Morrissey alleged Williams did not “have the capacity to consent to being filmed” for the Lifetime documentary and that her dementia and aphasia diagnoses left her “cognitively impaired.”
“How dare,” Williams said Thursday. “Do I seem that way?”
She added: “For the last three years, I have been caught up in the system.”
Finnie, who has spoken out publicly against her aunt’s guardian, encouraged “The Breakfast Club” listeners to spread the word about Williams’ experience and take action “to make sure my aunt is in a place where she is living her life in dignity.” She called on Williams’ caretakers to “give her the freedom she deserves.”
Before the new year, Williams attended her son Kevin Hunter Jr.’s college graduation. Williams said she is hoping to get some time with family to celebrate her father’s 94th birthday, but alleged — seemingly fighting back tears — that Morrissey might not allow it. “My life is like f— up,” Williams said.
Roberta Kaplan, an attorney representing Morrissey in the lawsuit against A&E, bolstered the guardian’s September claims about Williams’ cognitive health. Kaplan said in a statement Thursday that “a state court found her to be legally incapacitated, meaning that she is not capable of making legal and financial decisions on her own.”
Kaplan added: “Unfortunately, because of her diagnosis, Wendy’s condition will only get worse with time and she will require care for the rest of her life. But as anyone who has had a family member with dementia knows, Wendy has both good days and bad days. It is truly a shame that there is so much voyeuristic attention to this right now, since it only leads to the same kinds of exploitation that we saw in the so-called documentary, as alleged in our complaint.”
Toward the end of her “Breakfast Club” appearance, Finnie condemned the “broken” guardianship system. Last month, Hunter also voiced concern for his mom and told fans his mother was “sober and wants to come home.”
“The longer she’s under this guardianship, the longer they have the keys to her life,” Finnie said, “her personal, her financial, emotional … everything.”
