Wendy Williams is speaking out against her own legal guardian, who declared last year that the former TV host is “cognitively disabled, permanently disabled and legally incapacitated.”
The daytime host, 60, said Thursday morning: “I don't have any cognitive impairment.” Williams and her niece Alex Finnie called into “The Breakfast Club” radio show, where they raised allegations about Williams' care under the guardianship of Sabrina Morrissey.
“I feel like I'm incarcerated,” Williams said.
Williams was placed under financial conservatorship 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, his niece said Thursday. Williams and Finnie spoke to “The Breakfast Club” about the alleged tight security at the facility and accused Morrissey of preventing the former radio host from seeing and contacting her loved ones.
Morrissey's role as Williams' legal guardian attracted public attention last year ahead of Lifetime's four-part documentary “Where's Wendy Williams?” Prior to the documentary's release in February, news emerged that Williams had been diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. That same week, Morrissey filed a lawsuit against the newspaper “Where's Wendy Williams?” team, including Lifetime's parent company, A+E Networks. At that time, Morrissey requested a restraining order “prohibiting the publication of [the] documentary,” but a New York judge gave Lifetime the green light to proceed.
On Thursday, Williams avoided questions about the documentary (“I don't want to see that again,” “I don't want to talk about it”) and doubled down on his cognitive state. In a September legal filing, Morrissey alleged that Williams did not “have the capacity to consent to being filmed” for the Lifetime documentary and that her diagnoses of dementia and aphasia left her “cognitively impaired.”
“How dare you,” Williams said Thursday. “Do I look like that?”
She added: “For the last three years I have been trapped 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 steps “to ensure that my aunt is in a place where she lives her life with dignity.” . He called on Williams' caregivers to “give him the freedom he deserves.”
Before the new year, Williams attended his son Kevin Hunter Jr.'s college graduation. Williams said he hopes to spend some time with the family to celebrate his father's 94th birthday, but alleged, apparently fighting back tears, that Morrissey I might not allow it. “My life sucks,” Williams said.
Roberta Kaplan, an attorney representing Morrissey in the lawsuit against A&E, reinforced the guardian's claims in September about Williams' cognitive health. Kaplan said in a statement Thursday that “a state court declared her legally incapacitated, meaning she is not capable of making legal and financial decisions for herself.”
Kaplan added: “Unfortunately, due to her diagnosis, Wendy's condition will only worsen over time and she will need care for the rest of her life. But as anyone who has had a family member with dementia knows, Wendy has good days and bad days. “It is truly a shame that so much voyeuristic attention is being paid to this at this time, as it only leads to the same types of exploitation that we saw in the so-called documentary, as alleged in our complaint.”
Toward the end of his appearance on “Breakfast Club,” Finnie condemned the “broken” guardianship system. Last month, Hunter also expressed concern for his mother, telling fans that his mother was “sober and wants to come home.”
“The longer he's under this conservatorship, the longer they'll have the keys to his life,” Finnie said, “to his personal life, financial life, emotional life… everything.”
