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Wendy Williams' family is speaking out about the former talk show host's health and addiction struggles.
Ahead of Saturday's (February 24) premiere of the Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, Williams' niece, Alex Finnie, said the past few years have been "shocking and heartbreaking."
“We've all seen the images over the last few months — and, really, few years — of what has seemed like a spiral for my aunt,” Finnie, who is set to appear in the documentary, told People. "It was shocking and heartbreaking to see her in this state.”
The documentary initially set out to capture Williams' comeback to the media as she prepared to launch a podcast in August 2022. However, the project took a turn after the film crew caught Williams' struggles with alcohol addiction and health issues including Graves' disease and lymphedema.
In one scene in the upcoming documentary, Williams asks her driver to take her to the former Wendy Williams Show studio, forgetting he had done so just moments before.
"I don’t know what the hell is going on," her driver says in the doc. "I think she’s losing memory. She doesn’t know who I am sometimes.”
In April 2023, filming ended and Williams entered a facility to treat her "cognitive issues," according to her manager and jeweler Will Selby. Williams' family says she is currently in the facility, but only her court-appointed legal guardian has access to her.
Family members added that they don't know her whereabouts and cannot call her themselves, but she can contact them.
"The people who love her cannot see her,” Wanda, Williams' sister and Finnie's mom, said. “I think the big [question] is: How the hell did we get here?”
The former talk show host was placed under temporary financial guardianship by a New York court after Wells Fargo froze her accounts in early 2022 as her financial advisor claimed she was of "unsound mind." In May of that year, Williams was appointed an independent legal guardian to handle her finances and health.
Her family says they're unsure why the court made that decision, and the court papers are sealed.
“All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way, and they walked out, and the family is completely excluded,” Wanda said.
In the documentary, Williams alleges that her guardian, whose identity is private, has stolen money from her. Williams' guardian has the sole power to decide when and if Williams can leave the facility she is currently staying in.
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