One year after an explosive documentary suggested Wendy Williams’ health may be declining, the veteran talk show host is asking for the public’s help in regaining her freedom.
On Thursday morning, the 60-year-old former talk show host called into “The Breakfast Club” for an exclusive interview and insisted that despite being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and primary progressive aphasia in 2023, she’s “not cognitively impaired.”
After host Charlamagne Tha God explained Williams was calling in because she’s “trapped,” the talk show host said, “I am not cognitively impaired. But I feel like I am in prison.”
“I’m in this place where the people are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s,” she continued. “There’s something wrong with these people here on this floor.”
As for her conservatorship, Williams described it as “emotional abuse.”
“This system is broken,” she added.
The former TV personality said since her diagnosis, she’s been forced to stay in a maximum security care facility where she just “stares” out of the window by herself in her room. Her cats have been taken from her custody, and she has no control over her own finances or possession of her phone.
Williams called into the show with her niece, Alex, who corroborated her aunt’s claims. Her niece said her aunt’s guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, has possession of Williams’ older phone. Williams has also been barred from spending her own money and instead has to have someone else make purchases for her.
“That’s been the reality since 2023,” her niece claimed.
Williams shared her desire to head to Miami to visit her 94-year-old father for his birthday, but she’s unsure if she’ll be allowed.
“At 94, the day after that is not promised,” she noted as she became emotional.
Speaking of her guardian, Alex expressed concern Morrissey may retaliate against her aunt for Thursday’s interview.
“I said, ‘You know, we do this, you’re ready for what’s on the other side?’ And as she said, ‘I have to do this. There’s nothing else I could do at this point,’” Alex recalled.
The family is worried Williams could be moved without their notice or a way to contact her later. Alex also shared that when the bombshell documentary “Where is Wendy Williams” aired on Lifetime, they didn’t know where she was.
TheGrio has reached out to the office of Morrissey for comment.
Despite the serious nature of the discussion, Williams ended the watershed interview with her famous catchphrase, “How you doin’?” Meanwhile, Charlamagne urged listeners to “explode” the story on social media.
Williams’ salacious talk show on Fox came to an end in 2021 after she stepped back to deal with ongoing health challenges. She was placed under court-ordered guardianship in 2022, a year later after her bank, Wells Fargo, filed for one following what they felt was suspicious activity, Variety reported at the time.
Speaking to the outlet at the time, her attorney, LaShawn Thomas, said, “On behalf of Wendy Hunter, professionally known as Wendy Williams, as counsel to her and her affairs, Wendy wants the world to know that she strenuously denies all allegations about her mental health and well-being.”