We're Slowly Losing Wendy Williams - And It's Sad

As emotional as I tend to be over almost everything, I can still surprise myself with how certain situations affect me deeply.

Scrolling through Facebook on Thursday, I stumbled upon the news of media legend Wendy Williams being diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Off the power of that headline alone, my tear ducts filled to the brim and flowed for hours.

There is much to say about Williams’ rise to fame and the pinnacle of that fame, her 13-season run of The Wendy Williams Show. Much of it has been said already (usually by Wendy herself).

For better or worse – and there was a lot of worse – Wendy Williams knew how to grab and hold your attention. One of her infamous catchphrases, “Say it like you mean it,” speaks to me as a writer, or as I often call myself, a storyteller. To me, she is an inspiration. She is someone unafraid to say what needs to be said. You didn’t have to like her, but you have to respect her will to get to the bottom of things, no matter how messy they could be.

And messy, they often were.

In 2017, the public narrative shifted from Wendy leading the conversation on “Hot Topics” to becoming one herself. From fainting spells and marriage troubles to substance abuse relapses and multiple health issues, the Wendy we came to know morphed into someone we barely recognized – and then, someone we barely saw.

After missing multiple weeks of her show’s 13th season, she was unceremoniously fired and replaced with Sherri Shepherd. All mentions of her talk show, including thousands of clips on her official YouTube page, were seemingly wiped from the internet. A proposed comeback as a podcast host never came to pass. By the end of 2022, Wendy’s Instagram profile, the one social media profile she occasionally updated, went dark.

Around this time, a simple query - “Where is Wendy Williams?”- began to make the rounds on the internet.

We finally got an answer to that query around two weeks ago, but it wasn’t one anyone expected.

A preview for an upcoming two-night Lifetime documentary, aptly titled Where Is Wendy Williams, features Williams, now 59, appearing disoriented and distressed. The physical effects of her Graves’ disease diagnosis and rumored alcoholism (now confirmed in the special) are impossible to ignore, as her eyes bulge eerily from their sockets.

In the bits where she appears sober and lucid, Williams bemoans about being separated from her loved ones, her fans, her fame, and the millions she made. Her despair is glaringly apparent throughout the almost 4-minute long trailer.

Alas, someone may not have wanted us to know any of this.

As swiftly as the Where Is Wendy Williams trailer debuted online, it disappeared. Attempts to repost the trailer elsewhere led to further deletions and alleged copyright claims. However, once the mainstream media began to report on the documentary, the official Twitter/X profile of the Lifetime network posted the preview. There were no further removals.

Additionally, just hours after the statement of her current diagnosis went public, a lawsuit was filed against Lifetime’s parent company by Wendy’s appointed guardian. No reason has been given for the suit as it was done under seal – meaning the basis is currently shielded from public view.

Knowing Wendy is in a guardianship (or conservatorship), a legal act she once openly expressed disdain over - likely due to an alleged attempt by her former husband to take control of her life and finances - is, on its own, enough to tug at my sensitive heartstrings.

I know life is complicated, and some of our experiences are tougher than others. Still, it truly hurts seeing Wendy Williams, a woman who once took control of the narrative around her failed marriage and presented it openly via a whole-ass Lifetime biopic, lose that control and, with it, control of life as she once knew it.

And then, Thursday’s sad reveal came.

Wendy’s health team released a statement to the media on February 23 – just two days before the Lifetime docuseries - regarding Wendy’s current health battles:

“In 2023, after undergoing a battery of medical tests, Wendy was officially diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Aphasia, a condition affecting language and communication abilities, and frontotemporal dementia, a progressive disorder impacting behavior and cognitive functions, have already presented significant hurdles in Wendy’s life.”

To be fair, many of us assumed something more serious was at play before that announcement. During the limited times she was seen out and about following the end of her talk show in 2022, something seemed, for lack of a better term, off.

In August of that same year, photos of Wendy sleeping – or passed out – inside an NYC Louis Vuitton store were published online. During a 2023 interview with TMZ, Wendy consistently lost her train of thought and slurred her words. In another 2023 interview, Wendy claimed she had gotten married to a New York City police officer. Within hours, her rep refuted the claim and said Wendy had simply gotten “carried away” over a new relationship.

Wendy could be messy at times and often stood by the association with pride – an interview following her self-produced 2022 Lifetime biopic was subtitled, “What A Mess!” – but this was something else altogether.

Wendy’s “team” has remained mum on most of these experiences, but members of Wendy’s family took to the media to share their concerns. Most of her loved ones found themselves shut out of Wendy’s life completely following a 2022 hearing that instituted the guardianship that now manages her day-to-day life.

In the preview for Where Is Wendy Williams, we catch glimpses of Wendy with her only child, Kevin Hunter Jr., who says he is looking out for her “best interests.” However, there is that telling moment where a heartbroken Wendy suddenly cries out, “I miss my family.”

As for what this all means, I cannot say. What I can express, however, is how utterly sad I am to see all of this play out.

As a storyteller, I fear the days when I won't be able to recall minor details or share any thought or word, meaningful or otherwise, with anyone. It is a blessing I employ the written word as a vessel for my voice. There may come a time when I find myself silenced before my final bow, but my voice will have a chance to live on (if there are still online writing spaces in the future).

Wendy, love her or otherwise, is all about her voice. She would not be the Wendy Williams we know without that voice. Voices like hers allow me to raise my voice in this medium. I wouldn’t be who I am had it not been for someone like Wendy Williams. I cannot begin to fathom what she's feeling or thinking. My heart aches for her family, her fans, and most of all, for her. Wendy Williams was not supposed to bow out this way.

Despite what you may feel with what she’s done with that infamous voice, no one deserves to experience what she’s going through – and that means no one. Sympathy will be hard to come by from those who feel that the silencing of her voice is somehow karmic, but I offer mine tenfold. I can only ask others to think of how the same condition has affected the life of actor Bruce Willis – another storyteller of sorts, now similarly silenced in a world that is losing storytellers almost daily.

Love her or loathe her, Wendy Williams is a great storyteller. And we’re losing her. It’s sad. I'm sad.

Wendy Williams taught me, among other things, to say it like I mean it. And I mean it when I say that no one should have their voice taken away like this – especially someone as loud, proudly, and proudly loud as Wendy Joan Williams.