Wendy Williams‘ health appears to be in steep decline, with her guardian claiming the former TV host is “permanently incapacitated” following her diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia.
In a court filing from earlier this month, and viewed by several publications, lawyers for Williams’ court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, said the 60-year-old “has become cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and incapacitated” from dementia.
Morrissey argues that Williams did not “have the capacity to consent to being filmed” for Lifetime’s contentious Where is Wendy Williams? docuseries, which was released earlier this year.
The docuseries explored Williams’ health challenges, life after The Wendy Williams Show and her guardianship, and has descended into an ongoing legal battle with A&E Television Networks, Lifetime Entertainment and other affiliates involved with the release.
“This case arises from the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit (Williams),” the documents read, according to People, referencing her frontotemporal dementia diagnosis. “FTD is a progressive disease, meaning that there is no cure and the symptoms only get worse over time.”
Misconceptions around dementia
The filing claimed the defendants “cruelly took advantage of (Williams’) cognitive and physical decline by creating and publishing a documentary at a time when (Williams) was highly vulnerable and clearly incapable of consenting to be filmed.”
Lifetime has not publicly commented on the filing.
Williams has been under a court-appointed guardianship since May 2022 after her bank, Wells Fargo, claimed she was “incapacitated.”
Earlier this year, when Williams and her team decided to share her diagnoses publicly, they explained their reasoning for doing so.
“The decision to share this news was difficult and made after careful consideration, not only to advocate for understanding and compassion for Wendy,” the former talk show host’s team noted in the Feb. 22 press release, “but to raise awareness about aphasia and frontotemporal dementia and support the thousands of others facing similar circumstances.”
“Unfortunately,” the statement continued, “many individuals diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia face stigma and misunderstanding, particularly when they begin to exhibit behavioral changes but have not yet received a diagnosis.”
Where is Wendy Williams? was filmed between August 2022 and April 2023. Producers on the project said they were, at the time of filming, unaware of Williams’ cognitive issues.
In an interview earlier this year with Today, executive producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson, who is also showrunner, said they understand why some of Williams’ fans have ethical concerns about the documentary.
“We shaped the documentary, ultimately, in a way that we felt could benefit Wendy, her family and the world at large,” Ford said. “What started as a story about Wendy and her biography turned into something very different. (It became) more about what it is like when your family member, who you care about, is placed under legal guardianship and you don’t have any access to her anymore.”
Bruce Willis diagnosed with dementia 1 year after battling with aphasia
The episodes, while highlighting the cultural impact of Williams’ talk show career, show the star in a number of vulnerable moments.
Throughout the documentary, many of Williams’ family members claimed they’d been cut off from contacting Williams, who the family said was surrounded only by people on her payroll. In the second episode, Williams’ manager, Will Selby, finds an empty vodka bottle by the star’s bed and confronts Williams about alleged heavy drinking.
In the documentary, Williams is often agitated, weepy and confused.
The complaint asks that the defendants pay Williams unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and asks the court to order the defendants to permanently stop airing the show.
Morrissey said in her filing that while Lifetime has “profited immensely” from the production, Williams herself was paid “a paltry $82,000.”