(NewsNation) — Former talk show host Wendy Williams said she is not “cognitively impaired” and has been “trapped” in an emotionally abusive conservatorship in her first interview since the airing of a controversial documentary about her dementia diagnosis.
Williams, 60, made these claims during a call to the radio show “The Breakfast Club” on Thursday.
“I am not cognitively impaired, you know what I’m saying? But I feel like I am in prison. … I am definitely isolated,” Williams claimed of the conditions in the New York facility where she resides.
“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,” she said.
The former host remains under court-ordered guardianship — her guardian being Sabrina Morrissey — after being diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia.
Williams said the “system is broken,” and that her treatment amounts to “emotional abuse.”
She claimed that her phone had been taken away, leaving no way for anyone to call her. Williams also said she does not have the ability to buy anything for herself.
Williams’ niece Alex was also on the call, and likened her aunt’s living arrangement to a “luxury prison.” Even visitation is highly challenging due to the security protocols of the facility, Alex claimed.
“I went to New York in October to visit her. And the level of security and the level of questions that there were in terms of, ‘Who am I? Why am I here? What’s the purpose?’ I mean, it was absolutely just horrible.”
Williams said she fears that Morrissey will retaliate against her for speaking up. Her niece agreed, claiming that Williams told her, “I have to do this. There’s nothing else I could do at this point.”
Alex said Williams is “prepared for the fact that her phone might taken away.”
“What you’re hearing now is … we’ve been dealing with for the last several months and the last two, three years,” Alex said.
In 2022, Wells Fargo initiated guardianship proceedings where Morrissey was made guardian after Williams’ show got canceled as a result of her health problems.
Morrisey filed lawsuits last year against multiple parties involved in the creation of Lifetime’s controversial documentary “Where is Wendy Williams?”, saying the former host was “highly vulnerable and clearly incapable of consenting to be filmed, much less humiliated and exploited,” according to court documents.
She described Williams as “an acclaimed entertainer who, tragically, has been afflicted by early-onset dementia and, as a result, has become cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated.”
While she sought to block Lifetime from releasing the series, a court ruled it could be released as planned.
Amid the conservatorship, Williams’ friends have spoken out, saying they have not been able to see her.
“This has been one year that we have not seen her face, heard her, and she’s a very vocal woman. I don’t know what to do. … I would like to know that she’s alive and OK,” Regina Shell, Williams’ best friend, said on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.”
Shell, who said she appeared in the documentary without prior knowledge of its contents, recounted instances where Williams had no access to her finances, leading to delays in necessities, including food. Shell also expressed worries about the integrity of the appointed guardian.
NewsNation’s Anna Kutz and Liz Jassin contributed to this story.
