Secrets of Wacky Wendy Williams' Legal Fight Against Lifetime Revealed: Daytime Diva 'Battling to Get Network to Pay Crippling Medical Bills'
'Where Is Wendy Williams?' gave viewers a shocking look at her deteriorating condition.
Sept. 27 2024, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
Wendy Williams' legal team wants the Lifetime Channel to pay her medical bills, claiming the cable network cruelly laid her mental and medical woes bare for ratings in a TV documentary about her decline.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Lifetime cameras trailed Williams for seven months, recording her downward spiral for the two-part doc Where Is Wendy Williams?
It aired in February and became one of the most watched shows in the network's history – but Williams received just $82,000 for the project, which her lawyers say exposed her.
The Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams? premiered in February.
Her legal team, in its complaint against Lifetime and its parent company A&E Networks, wrote: "This is a paltry sum for the use of highly invasive, humiliating footage that showed her in the confusing throes of dementia, while defendants, who have profited on the streaming of the program, have likely already earned millions."
Williams' attorneys previously tried to block the doc from airing.
The complaint continued: "No person who witnessed (Williams) in these circumstances could possibly have believed that she was capable of consenting to an agreement to film."
They also claimed Williams was portrayed as a "laughingstock and drunkard, implicitly responsible for her own continued suffering".
Morrissey further asked the court keep portions of legal filings redacted to protect the ex-talk show host's privacy.
The former daytime diva, 60, was a ratings sensation with her syndicated TV talk show from 2008 to 2021, when she went MIA to battle Graves' disease and substance abuse.
And in 2023, Williams was diagnosed with aphasia – a disorder robbing sufferers of the use of language – as well as dementia, and was placed in a wellness facility.
The drama queen diva resurfaced for the first time in 19 months in late August when she was spotted shopping with her son, Kevin Hunter Jr.
An insider said: "Wendy faces long-term care for the rest of her life, and her wealth has dwindled considerably as she's no longer able to work."
Williams' guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, previously attempted to air the ex talk show host's documentary from airing. continues to battle Graves' disease, aphasia and frontotemporal dementia.
The source added: "Lifetime should foot the bill for her care, since they made millions exploiting her decline."
As RadarOnline.com reported, Williams' legal fight against Lifetime also comes after her best friend of 44 years Regina Schell gave her first-ever interview about the former The Wendy Williams Show host.
While Schell admitted she has spoken to Williams in over a year, she also claimed Williams was "forced into silence" after vanishing from the public.
She said: "I want people to know that Wendy is a real person, and this is not some karma is a b---- thing."
Wendy Williams' legal guardian said she is 'permanently incapacitated' in a new court filing.
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Schell continued: "Talking is Wendy's life, her whole claim to fame is talking, and I don't think she would be this quiet unless she was forced to be quiet.
"Where is Wendy and why is no one asking that question? And why is no one answering that question. Why can't they produce Wendy, or an actual statement from Wendy, or a picture of Wendy? Where is Wendy?!"
She added: "I haven't spoken to my friend, who I spoke to five times a day, in over a year now.
"She's somewhere that she can't reach a phone because Wendy can always get to a phone, because if she could get to a phone, she'd be calling me."
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