Wendy Williams in 2022.Photo:Calvin Gayle
Calvin Gayle
A new documentary turnsWendy Williams' signature question — “How you doin'?” — back on her.
Filmed between August 2022 and April 2023, Lifetime’sWhere Is Wendy Williams?capturesa dark period in the former host’s life, as she spiraled following the cancellation of her synonymous talk show due to alcohol addiction and several health issues. (The project was filmed following the start of her court-ordered guardianship.)
“There were points where everyone in this family wondered whether that call [that she was dead] was going to come in the middle of the night,” Williams’ sister, Wanda Finnie, 65, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. (Williams' family said they weren’t aware of the star’s new diagnosis at the time of the conversation.)
Adds Wanda’s daughter Alex, 33: “It was shocking and heartbreaking to see her in this state.”
Wendy Williams and her niece Alex in Where Is Wendy Williams?.Lifetime
Lifetime
Two days ahead of the release of the first part of the documentary on Saturday, Williams' care team revealed the 59-year-old television personality had been diagnosed with progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Williams' family claimed they were kept in the dark about her diagnosis and that they’ve hadlimited contactwith her since she was placed under herlegal guardianshipin May 2022. Williams has been in a facility receiving treatment since April 2023, and while her family says they cannot call her, she can call them.
The same day Williams' diagnosis was released, her guardianfiled a lawsuitagainst Lifetime’s parent company A&E Television Networks, seeking to halt the release of the documentary.
“Let me say, wow! Your response has been overwhelming. The messages shared with me have touched me, reminding me of the power of unity and the need for compassion,” she said. “I hope that others with FTD may benefit from my story … I continue to need personal space and peace to thrive. Please just know that your positivity and encouragement are deeply appreciated.”
The documentary is broken down into four hour-long episodes, airing over two nights. Read on for the biggest bombshells revealed on both nights ofWhere Is Wendy Williams?.
Wendy addresses her alcohol abuse: ‘I love vodka’
In the first episode of the documentary, Williams candidly states: “I love vodka.” She adds that her sister Wanda “hates that I love alcohol” and her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., 23, “hates liquor.”
In the scenes shot during the documentary’s start in August 2022, Williams appears to be drunk, and she enters a wellness facility a month later.
After a two month stay at the facility, Williams resumes filming. She’s shown a clip where she’s drunk, and after producers ask her thoughts, she starts crying, only to reveal moments later that her tears are because of her outfit and wig choices.
Alex says she’s fearfully googled Williams' name every day for a year and a half, scared she’ll find something we “can’t come back from.”
Asked why she likes to drink, Williams states: “Because I can. Just because I care for it.”
Wendy Williams with her son Kevin Jr. in Florida.
When Williams was in Florida with her family, Kevin Jr. says he kept her sober, had her eating a vegan diet and working with a trainer.
“I feel like her being down here with family was the best situation for her because she wasn’t able to self-sabotage,” he adds. “If there should ever be someone who should help her manage that, it should be the ones around her, her loved ones, her family.”
At the end of episode two, Kevin Jr. says he’s afraid his mom “could die” without the right help.
Wendy says she can only feel about “6 percent” of each foot due to her lymphedema
Williams starts crying as she mentions her lymphedema, which her family says she was diagnosed with in 2019. She says that she “should be in a wheelchair.”
Wendy Williams in 2021.BACKGRID
BACKGRID
Along with lymphedema, Williams has long had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that can cause bulging eyes.
That’s clear in a scene where Williams gets her nails done. Shortly after the nail tech puts polish on her, she tells her to remove it all.
For Williams' nephew Travis Finnie, he says he’s noticed a change in Williams over the past 10 years. While living with Williams while he was in college, he says she would take her vape pen and a bottle of liquor and they wouldn’t see her until 5 a.m. when it was time for her to go to work onThe Wendy Williams Show.
“I just knew she had a problem,” he says.
Wendy says she would get high five days a week in the 90s
In the first episode, Williams says she would get high “like five days” a week in the 90s, as she rose to fame as a radio shock jock. “I wanted to experience everything,” she says of why she did drugs.
Kevin Hunter, Wendy Williams and their son Kevin Jr.Bruce Glikas/Getty
Bruce Glikas/Getty
After two miscarriages, Williams and Hunter welcomed their son in 2000.
“My son Kevin is very important to me,” Williams says through tears.
Though Travis says he wasn’t “the biggest fan” of Hunter, he credits him for making sure Williams showed up on time to work.
DJ Boof says he found Wendy unresponsive in 2020
After Williams' divorce, her show deejay DJ Boof says he replaced Hunter as her “protector.”
When the COVID shutdown began in March 2020, Williams did several virtual episodes of her talk show with Boof but was largely isolated in her luxury New York City apartment. He would hold up cue cards for her, but he says there were “times she showed no emotion.”
“This is not COVID doing this,” Boof recalls thinking. “[It’s the] damage of using alcohol for so long … I got to see the lowest of lows.”
Wendy Williams in March 2023.T.JACKSON / BACKGRID
T.JACKSON / BACKGRID
In May 2020, Boof says he found her unresponsive at home and she was rushed to the hospital, where she needed several blood transfusions.
“She just wasn’t the same person anymore,” Boof says.
Wendy’s son Kevin Jr. responds to scrutiny he spent her money
In early 2022 Wells Fargo froze Williams' accounts after her financial adviser at the time alleged that she was of “unsound mind,” according to Williams’s court filings. The bank successfully petitioned a New York court to have Williams placed under a temporary financial guardianship.
Kevin Jr. came under scrutiny for his spending but strongly denies in the documentary that he exploited her: “I’ve never taken [money] without her consent.”
Wendy Williams and son, Kevin Hunter Jr. attend the ceremony honoring Wendy Williams with a Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame held on October 17, 2019.Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Michael Tran/FilmMagic
“I’ve always spoken to her, and she’s always wanted me to spend her — let’s spend her money,” he says. “She’s always told me, like, ‘Kevin, if you ever need something or whatever, just ask me, and, like, you know, it could happen.’ She would always communicate with me.”
Williams herself says at one point: “I’m luxurious and gorgeous, and I care for my family.”
After theWendy Williams Showwas cancelled in June 2022, Alex says it took months for it to sink in for Williams.
Wendy claims, without evidence, that her guardian has stolen from her
In the third episode, Williams says she’s being told there’s no money for her in her Wells Fargo account.
Wendy claims her guardian, who is not named in the documentary, has stolen from her account. Filmmakers say she didn’t provide evidence, and her guardian did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. A statement from Wells Fargo reads, “This matter was conducted under seal. Any claims against Wells Fargo have been dismissed.”
Wendy’s niece Alex breaks down after seeing her
Alex visits Williams in her New York City apartment at one point and calls it “very jarring.” She tells Williams’ publicist Shawn Zanotti to leave the room so she and her aunt can have some time alone together.
“It’s giving desperate energy,” Alex tells Williams after Zanotti leaves, to which Williams says, “Relax.” After that moment, Williams tells production she’s done for the day.
During a usual visit, Alex says Williams would ask her how she was doing and then would offer her food in her fridge. Production tells Alex there’s no food in Williams’ fridge, and she starts crying.
Alex says in the episode that she’s tried speaking with the guardian, but communication quickly evolved from friendly to closed off. “I want to make sure my aunt is okay,” Alex says. “She’s pushed to do too much for other people’s pockets.”
Wendy Williams and her father, Thomas.Lifetime
Wendy runs away to Los Angeles and returns home to New York ‘disheveled’ and adamant about drinking
In L.A., Zanotti also books a meeting for Williams to meet with NBC Universal about a new show. Afterwards, Williams says the meeting went “amazing” and mentions that she showed the execs in the room her swollen feet. (Filmmakers note that NBC declined to comment and that no deal with NBC materialized.)
Wendy Williams and Blac Chyna in Lifetime’s ‘Where Is Wendy Williams?'.Lifetime
Wendy has an emotional reunion with Blac Chyna
“You’ve always been like, honest with me, and put me in my place, in the most motherly, kind way,” Chyna, 35, tells Williams as they sit together in her N.Y.C. apartment. Moments prior, Williams removes the wig she was wearing to show her real hair.
Chyna tells Williams in the clip that she wants to be there for her, just as Williams had been there in the past. “That’s why I love you so much, because even when I was going through my darkest times you never used that against me,” she tells Williams. “That’s how you know that the love is genuine and it’s always going to be there. And I’m going to always be here for you, straight up.”
But to that Williams responds with a non sequitur, suddenly telling Chyna, “My real name is Wendy Hunter. Yup. And I’m divorced. He’s got no money.”
When a concerned Chyna responds, “I love you,” Williams, seeming more like herself, shares, “So do I,” before the two embrace.
Kevin Hunter Jr. in ‘Where is Wendy Williams?'.Lifetime
Wendy was found hiding in her bathroom before she entered a facility
Wendy’s older sister Wanda says she was asked to be Wendy’s guardian then ‘all of a sudden the wall came down’
Wanda appears in the fourth episode, as she was one of the last family members to sign onto the docuseries. She says she wants people to see the love they have as a family. “We want Wendy healthy and happy,” she says.
Wanda notes that the last time she talked to Williams in the facility she “sounded good” and “asked about family.”
Even though Wanda doesn’t know Williams’ exact location, she hopes she will heal, psychologically and physically. “All I want is for my sister to be healthy,” she reiterates. “She has withstood attack after attack. She is my hero. She will always be my hero. I will do whatever has to be done to help her be healthy.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.Wanda says she was asked if she would be Williams’ guardian and that she said yes, but after that, “the wall came down.”
While much remains unresolved, Wanda promises at the end of the documentary: “There is going to be a happy ending.”
(This article was originally published on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 10:03 p.m. ET. Additional bombshells were added following the second half’s airing on Sunday, Feb. 25.)
source: people.com
