During a Halloween particular episode seven years in the past, draped in a glittering Girl Liberty costume, speak present host Wendy Williams shocked viewers when she abruptly fainted dwell on air.
Producers dramatically reduce to a six-minute business break and the host reappeared on digicam. On the time Williams, now 60, attributed it to overheating in her costume. However just a few months later, it grew to become obvious that the viral second in 2017 additionally marked the start of the decline in her well being that may change the course of her profession.
Together with her iconic “The way you doin?” catchphrase and larger-than-life persona, Williams was the outspoken queen of daytime TV. From 2008 to 2021, she fronted The Wendy Williams Present for 13 seasons and held favorable rankings whereas going head-to-head with the massively widespread The Ellen DeGeneres Present.
However a collection of well being setbacks plagued her closing years on the hit present. Simply 4 months after the fainting episode, Williams was identified with Graves’ illness, a situation of the immune system that impacts the perform of the thyroid, and Lymphedema, a persistent situation that causes swelling. She defiantly carried on with the present after the prognosis, however the situation compelled her to take prolonged breaks. Her closing look was within the fall of 2021. Her present was canceled in 2022 with out the star even showing within the closing episode.
That very same 12 months, Williams was positioned underneath a monetary guardianship after her financial institution “documented a sample of surprising and disturbing occasions.”
Then, there was a interval of darkness till 2024, when she revealed a devastating prognosis of major progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. She has been dwelling in a Manhattan assisted dwelling facility ever since.
This week, Williams was taken to a New York hospital after she dropped a word from the window of her assisted dwelling facility. “Assist! Wendy!!” it learn.
The troubling episode is the newest in a collection of struggles in Williams’s private life over time. She has battled drug and alcohol dependancy, suffered a number of miscarriages and gone by two divorces.
All through all of it, although, the “shock jock diva” has entertained followers along with her no-nonsense and infrequently brutal interview fashion for the reason that 80s – that led to her rise into daytime talk-show powerhouse.
Early profession and drug dependancy
Born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1964, it was clear that Williams was destined to be on the airwaves from an early age. As a woman she “spoke too loud, too quick and an excessive amount of,” she wrote in her 2004 memoir Wendy’s Received the Warmth.
At Boston’s Northeastern College, Williams found her love of broadcasting and hosted her personal music present on the school’s radio station WRBB.
After graduating, Williams made a reputation for herself working at radio stations in New York and Philadelphia within the Nineteen Eighties and 90s. Her profession was simply taking off and with it got here a wild social life that rapidly slipped into heavy cocaine use. Williams beforehand admitted she grew to become “a functioning addict” throughout her early profession. “I used to be a younger Jersey woman turning the town the wrong way up,” she instructed PEOPLE in 2014. “I needed to dwell on the sting.”
“I’d work from 3 within the afternoon till 7 at night time, get off and social gathering till 7 within the morning – then sleep till 2, go to the radio station and do it once more,” she as soon as mentioned.
Williams said she kicked the behavior when she turned 29 after “burning up [her] insides.”
Chaotic love life and opening as much as listeners about fertility struggles
Her love life was additionally tumultuous. In 1994, Williams was briefly married to a salesman, Bert Girigorie, however they separated 5 months later. That very same 12 months, she met her second husband, Kevin Hunter, and married him in 1999. Williams tragically suffered a number of miscarriages with Hunter.
“I suffered a number of miscarriages together with two at 5 months,” she mentioned within the 2024 documentary. “That’s when you’ve got the garments already picked out, the nursery is already painted. They ask you would you like a funeral or would you like the cremation.”
Sharing her heartbreak along with her listeners grew to become a sort of remedy for the star and it additionally proved profitable for her present.
Throughout a three-year stint in Philadelphia at WUSL, the radio host boosted the rankings from 14th to 2nd place due to her openness with listeners, speaking candidly about her fertility struggles and former drug dependancy. In 2000, Williams gave beginning to her son, Kevin Hunter Jr.
Massive radio break that led to TV debut
While navigating motherhood, Williams’s massive profession break got here in New York Metropolis in 2001 at WBLS, the place she was given her personal present titled The Wendy Williams Expertise. She spent the most effective a part of a decade gossiping, giving readers recommendation on intercourse and relationships and grilling celebrities in what grew to become her assertion brash interview fashion. In a single notorious trade in 2003, she interrogated Whitney Houston concerning the late singer’s drug dependancy.
“My bark is worse than my chew,” she later mentioned of the interview. “By being tall and outgoing, folks mistake that for being overpowering, overbearing, loud and being a bully.”
Towards the tip of the 2000s, Williams was prepared to maneuver on from radio and break into TV. In 2008, The Wendy Williams Present debuted on TV throughout a trial run and was successful. It was picked up by FOX in 2009 for a full season and Williams by no means seemed again.
Throughout its run, the present was nominated for 4 daytime Emmy awards and Williams loved her new fame. She interviewed the largest names, together with President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka, Jennifer Lopez and Venus and Serena Williams. She additionally appeared on Dancing with the Stars and had cameo roles on 30 Rock and Legislation & Order.
Marriage breakdown and rehab stint
Within the present’s closing few years, Williams struggled with extra well being setbacks, having to take break day, and in 2019 the tabloid press ran began to run tales that her husband was dishonest on her. It grew to become an excessive amount of for Williams and he or she turned to alcohol to manage. Her household despatched her to rehab, she revealed on her present.
That very same 12 months, she addressed rumors that Hunter had cheated on her dwell on air. “I wish to shout out my husband,” she mentioned. “I’m nonetheless carrying my ring.”
A month later, Williams filed for divorce after it emerged the rumors had been true and Hunter had fathered a toddler with one other girl.
Monetary guardianship and troubling documentary
When The Wendy Williams Present abruptly led to 2022, the star was appointed a authorized guardian to supervise her monetary affairs after her financial institution – Wells Fargo – “documented a sample of surprising and disturbing occasions” associated to her welfare and funds.
It marked a darkish time within the star’s life and he or she disappeared from the general public eye till 2024, when a four-part Lifetime documentary aptly titled The place is Wendy Williams? aired.
The documentary shocked America. Williams had hardly ever been seen for 2 years and viewers had been shocked to see her wanting so pale and fragile, a far cry from the glamorous TV presenter they’d recognized for over a decade. In footage, Williams usually appeared disorientated and confused. The documentary moved the dial on how Williams was perceived by the general public. Followers grew to become severely involved and, finally, unhappy for the star.
The collection additionally revealed she nonetheless had a ingesting drawback. Within the documentary, her son, 24-year-old Kevin Hunter Jr, mentioned that medical doctors identified her with alcohol-induced dementia in 2021.
The documentary finally raised extra questions than it answered. Her court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrisey, even tried to dam it from airing, claiming that it took benefit of Williams “within the cruelest, most obscene manner potential.” Two days earlier than the documentary aired, Williams’s group introduced she had been identified with major progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, the identical situation as Bruce Willis. Producers mentioned they didn’t know she had the situation whereas filming.
Williams has been dwelling in an assisted dwelling facility in New York, which she has likened to being in “jail,” and he or she has questioned her prognosis. In January this 12 months, Williams requested The Breakfast Membership hosts DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Jess Hilarious: “Do I seem that way, god damn it?”
“I am not cognitively impaired, you know what I’m saying? But I feel like I’m in prison,” she said of the care facility.
“I am definitely isolated. To talk to these people who live here, that is not my cup of tea… I’m in this place where the people are in their Nineties and their Eighties and their Seventies… There’s something wrong with these people here on this floor.”
Her family is now fighting to get Williams out of the state’s care. Her brother Tommy Williams has insisted she is “in great shape mentally and physically,” he told Us Weekly.
Looking ahead, Williams says she just wants to get “back to work.” But for now, her fight for freedom is the priority.
“Staying in New York, going back to work and…what will I do? I have options,” she told Good Day New York this week. “However when it comes to getting out of guardianship, that’s my primary most vital factor.”
