The legal battle between Wendy Williams’ representatives and A+E Networks, owner of television network, Lifetime, has revealed troubling news about the 60-year-old TV and radio legend.
Deadline reported that Sabrina Morrissey, Wendy’s guardian, sued A+E Networks and additional production companies over Lifetime’s Mark Ford-directed documentary series “Where Is Wendy Williams?” which premiered in February.
The federal lawsuit in New York accused A&E Television Networks, Entertainment One Reality Productions, Lifetime Entertainment Services, Creature Films, and Ford of exploiting Williams because the former television show host could not consent to the contract signed on Jan. 25, 2023.
According to The US Sun, Morrissey filed new court documents connected to the case. The latest filings acknowledged Williams is “cognitively impaired” and “permanently incapacitated” from early onset dementia.
Morrissey also requested that the court protect Wendy’s privacy by redacting the famous shock jock’s “health, familial relationships, and finances” from the public.
“We respectfully request that the Court grant Plaintiff’s motion for limited redactions to protect non-public information from the Guardianship Proceeding that has been placed under seal by the court overseeing that proceeding,” the filings stated.
Wendy’s fans took to social media to share their reactions to the news that the New Jersey native’s health has deteriorated in recent years.
“I miss her so much,” one person wrote in the comment section of The US Sun’s Instagram page. A second person added, “She needs to pray and ask for healing from above.”
Someone on X wrote, “This is so sad, cause she worked so hard to make a name for herself and reach the level she did, for it to all end like this with her forgetting everything.”
Another X user tweeted, “What a way to take her money! Her son gets nothing, including his mother who he and his family wanted to move to Florida and they said NO!!!!! THIS IS CRIMINAL WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO HER.”
Williams has one son, 24-year-old Kevin Hunter Jr., with her second husband, 52-year-old Kevin Hunter. Wendy and Kevin Sr. were married from November 1999 to January 2020.
The couple initially separated in 2019 after Hunter had a child with his mistress, Sharina Hudson, during an extramarital affair.
In addition to the suit against A+E Networks, Morrissey is also in a courtroom struggle with Hunter over his final divorce judgment with Williams.
Hunter is fighting to get more compensation from Wendy. The longtime producer of “The Wendy Williams Show” alleges that $48 million was “fraudulently concealed” in their divorce settlement.
Those allegations were based on Wendy’s best friend, Regina Schell, submitting an affidavit to a New Jersey court declaring Williams had $55 million in her Wells Fargo accounts in 2022.
“I cannot address what [Schell] thinks she saw or heard, what a third person thinks she heard, or what that third person may or may not have reported to [Schell],” Morrissey argued in a response filing to Hunter’s claims.
Furthermore, Hunter claims Morrissey does not have any “legal standing” to represent Williams in the ongoing litigation over alimony payments.
Hunter’s court filings read, “Ms. Morrissey is an attorney in New York, not New Jersey and though she claims to have been appointed as a Guardian in New York her Guardianship does not extend to this court as there is no Guardianship established in New Jersey.”
Williams rose to prominence as a radio DJ in New York City in the early 1990s. By 2008, she moved to daytime television with the syndicated “The Wendy Williams Show,” which ran until 2022.
The final two seasons of “The Wendy Williams Show” were marred by Williams’ health concerns. She has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease, lymphedema, aphasia, and frontotemporal dementia.
Lifetime’s “Where is Wendy Williams?” documented Wendy dealing with disturbing mental, physical, and financial struggles. In one viral scene from the docuseries, she stated, “I have no money.”
Williams was listed as an executive producer for “Where is Wendy Williams?” However, Morrissey’s legal team attempted to prevent the release of the four-part series with a restraining order, but an appellate judge sided with Lifetime on First Amendment grounds.
