Wendy Williams' First Ex-Husband Bert Girigorie Spills About 'Strained' Marriage to Ailing Talk Show Host
Wendy Williams' Lifetime documentary is getting mixed reviews.
Feb. 26 2024, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
Wendy Williams' first hush-hush marriage surprised fans, with many learning that she was wed to another man before Kevin Hunter while watching Lifetime's controversial documentary about the former beloved talk show host's fall from grace brought on by her health woes and alcohol dependency.
However, Williams' first former husband, Bert Girigorie, spoke about her alleged addiction problems long before her downfall, and he said it ruined their short-lived marriage, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Wendy's alleged alcoholism was a hot topic during the four-part project; however, she claimed she didn't have an issue.
Bert was with the TV chatterbox from 1992 to 1995 and claimed their relationship was initially driven by sex. While they had "a lot of fun together," her ex said things rapidly went downhill after they wed in 1994 during her radio days.
"She just turned into a different person. I didn't understand a lot of things she did. The relationship became very strained," he revealed in a bombshell interview from 2019.
Bert claimed the newlyweds had a furious fight on their honeymoon in Rio when disc jockey Wendy, who earned $15 million a year at the height of her TV career, wanted to go out at night on her own. He said he didn't realize she had allegedly been using drugs — though she later admitted to a nasty cocaine habit.
Looking back, Bert said some of her behavior seemed suspect even then.
After their divorce, Bert also claimed he heard rumors about Williams stepping out on him with other men.
"Several people came to me with stories about her being with other people," he told the National Enquirer. "She would stay out all night... and didn't offer any explanation. And that pissed me off."
Wendy's downfall went public when her then husband, Kevin Hunter, got his mistress pregnant.
Bert said he later learned that Williams was having an alleged affair with someone prominent in "entertainment and media," but he refused to identify the man.
Her ex was hurt by the claims in her book, Wendy's Got the Heat, which reported he physically abused her — charges he insisted are not true.
Bert's bombshells came just as his ex-wife was forced to admit on The Wendy Williams Show that she'd enlisted the help of a sober coach and had been living at a halfway house in NYC — something Wendy claimed in the just-aired documentary, Where is Wendy Williams? that she was forced into because the paparazzi were hot on her trail.
Williams' booze addiction did not stop there as seen in the four-part Lifetime project that premiered over the weekend. Years after her marriage with Bert ended, Wendy's crumbling personal life became a hot topic after her second husband, Hunter, strayed from their 21-year union and got his mistress, Sharina Hudson, pregnant.
Williams suffered two back-to-back miscarriages at five months pregnant before successfully welcoming her only child, Kevin Hunter Jr.
Wendy broke down several times throughout the documentary.
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Bert had hoped that his ex had kicked her demons despite their difficult history.
"I hope she and all the other folks struggling are able to overcome it for their own sake and for their family's sake," he shared.
Lifetime's documentary has faced backlash after its weekend debut, with several accusing the network of profiting off the unstable star. Others turned their anger toward Wendy's small team that cares for her and her court-ordered guardian, who a judge ruled was in charge of her financial welfare after her financial advisor feared she was of “unsound mind” and could be financially exploited.
RadarOnline.com revealed that Williams' court-ordered guardian filed a lawsuit against Lifetime's parent company in the eleventh hour, seemingly to stop the shocking documentary from airing. However, Lifetime aired the four episodes over the weekend as planned.
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