Wendy Williams’ guardian has revealed troubling details about the former talk show host’s health.
In a court filing dated November 12 and obtained by The Post, attorneys for Williams’ guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, stated that the 60-year-old is battling significant cognitive decline. They described Williams as “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and incapacitated” due to her ongoing struggle with dementia.
Morrissey is also engaged in a legal dispute with Lifetime over the release of the documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, which premiered in February.
The lawsuit claims A&E Television Networks and the executive producer Mark Ford “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.”
In 2023, Williams was diagnosed with primary aggressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia—the same conditions that Bruce Willis is currently facing. The diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia and FTD was made in 2023, highlighting the impact on Williams’ communication abilities. FTD is characterized by the shrinking of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, influencing personality, behavior, and language. Unlike more common forms of dementia, FTD occurs at a younger age, typically between 40 and 65.
Since May 2022, she has been under court-ordered guardianship, which manages her health and finances following claims by her bank, Wells Fargo, that she was “incapacitated.”
Morrissey’s legal team has requested that certain parts of the case concerning Williams’ “health, familial relationships, and finances” be redacted to safeguard her privacy.
“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,” per the papers.
The latest legal dispute arose after Williams’ guardian attempted to block Lifetime from releasing its documentary earlier this year. Morrissey’s team filed a restraining order against the network on February 20, just days before the release. However, the judge denied the request, ruling that stopping the documentary would violate the First Amendment as an “impermissible prior restraint on speech.”
On September 16, 2024, Morrissey filed an amended complaint against A&E Television Networks, Entertainment One Reality Productions, Lifetime Entertainment Services, Creature Films, and director Mark Ford. The case has since moved to federal court, and the defendants have filed countersuits against Morrissey.
Wendy Williams, worked as a celebrated media personality and former talk show host. She is known for her candid and often controversial style. Williams rose to fame with The Wendy Williams Show, which aired from 2008 to 2022, cementing her as a cultural icon. However, her career took a turn due to escalating health issues, including lymphedema and Graves’ disease.