As talk show host Wendy Williams makes the rounds on a 10-city tour in support of her long-running show’s tenth season, she’s also promoting her new campaign for people struggling with addiction.
At each stop, Williams invites a group of several hundred faithful Wendy Watchers to a live “Ask Wendy” session, but she also makes time to talk about her “Be Here” campaign.
Williams’ last two tour stops are scheduled for San Francisco and Dallas, where she’ll share her story with fans there, too.
“The awareness of drugs and the stigma associated with people who get caught up in drugs and substance abuse, it needs to be ripped off,” she said before the ninth season of “The Wendy Williams Show” wrapped. “We need to share with one another.”
The campaign was launched through Williams’ Wendy Williams Hunter Foundation, which is taking donations through BeHere.org.
Addiction struggles are something Williams can personally relate to. During her stint as a New York radio host, she had a decade-long battle with cocaine.
“I was a functioning addict though,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “I would report to work on time, and I walked in and all of my coworkers, and including my bosses, would know but instead of firing me, you see, I would grab my headphones and arrogantly walk into the studio and dare them fire me because I was making ratings.”
While Williams eventually kicked the habit, she was terrified upon discovering that her teenage son had smoked K2, or synthetic marijuana, three years ago.
“I was horrified. My son became someone I didn’t even know,” she disclosed before saying she knew he was smoking it “immediately. It zaps your brain immediately.”
“Drugs have no income; drugs have no race or religion,” she added. “Drugs are drugs, and that K2 was really something else, and you know I’m glad to say we were able to bring him back all the way around.”
