Wendy Williams, the former daytime talk show queen, is permanently “incapacitated” as her dementia has progressed, according to her legal guardian.
Sabrina E. Morrissey, Williams’ court-appointed guardian, told the court that Williams has become “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled and legally incapacitated,” The Guardian reported. Morrissey became Williams’ legal protector in 2022, shortly after the discontinuation of Williams’ iconic talk show due to her prolonged battles with Graves’ disease, lymphedema, alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
The media became aware of Morrissey’s testimony due to her lawsuit against A&E Television Networks and Lifetime Entertainment. The networks aired the highly controversial “Where is Wendy Williams” docuseries that probed Williams’ guardianship, health issues, her divorce and life after the “Wendy Williams Show.”
“This case arises from the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit [Williams],” the documents read, according to People magazine. “[Frontotemporal dementia] is a progressive disease, meaning that there is no cure and the symptoms only get worse over time.”
Morrissey says the media companies that produced the series “filmed without a valid contract and released without Guardian’s consent.” She added that Williams was in a “highly vulnerable” state and was “clearly incapable of consenting to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited.”
The guardian is asking the court for some redaction in portions of the lawsuit to safeguard Williams’ “privacy and dignity.”
A&E filed a counterclaim against Morrissey, alleging that no one from Williams’ camp “attempted to stop production of the documentary” at any point, including Morrissey.
“We also describe how Williams’ manager Will Selby saw the documentary and its trailer before they aired and expressed enthusiastic support, and Williams’ family members also watched the documentary before it aired and expressed support for its release, and even sat for press interviews in connection with its release,” A&E said in a statement obtained by People magazine.
