Wendy Williams denies she's incapacitated in 'The View' interview. What she says about her guardianship, hospitalization, alcohol use.

Yahoo

15-03-2025

Wendy Williams was back on TV talking again — but about her guardianship, not pop culture.
The former TV host, who was put into a guardianship in 2022, called into The View on March 14 to discuss her hospitalization for cognitive testing this week. Williams insisted she's not incapacitated and pleaded for her guardian and the judge in her court-ordered guardianship to 'get off my neck.'
Williams, who's living on the memory care floor of a senior living facility in New York City amid her frontotemporal dementia diagnosis, also told the co-hosts she's currently 'alcohol-free' but admitted to breaking her sobriety last year.
Here's what Williams said on the talk show and in other interviews this week about the guardianship.
Williams, joined by health care advocate Ginalisa Monterroso of Connect Care Advisory Group, insisted her mental abilities are strong, proven by acing cognitive testing conducted at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.
'It was my choice to get an independent evaluation on my incapacitation, which — I don't have," Williams said on The View. 'How dare they say I have incapacitation. I do not!'
She railed against her court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, and the judge in her case after Sunny Hostin read a statement from Morrissey's attorney that said Williams is 'legally incapacitated,' hasn't been kept from her family and is 'receiving excellent medical care.'
'I'm a college-educated woman. I'm a globally international person from radio to television. I've been doing important things all of my life,' Williams said. 'I need them to … get off my neck.'
Williams said she wants 'to get out' of the guardianship. 'It's been over three years, and it's time for my money and my life to get back to status quo,' she said.
Until then, she wants Morrissey replaced, 'I need a new guardian.'
In the 2024 Lifetime docuseries Where Is Wendy Williams?, the star's alcohol use was concerning to viewers and filmmakers, and her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., said on camera that Williams's doctors diagnosed her with 'alcohol-induced dementia' because she had been 'drinking so much.' She also has a past history of cocaine addiction.
Asked about her current relationship with alcohol and drugs, Williams said the 'relationship is fine,' and she can 'easily' be 'alcohol-free for the rest of my life.'
She did admit to drinking alcohol on her birthday last year.
'But I must admit to you that when I got from Connecticut to New York, it was my birthday, July 18, and yes, I celebrated, you know what I'm saying?' she said. 'But no more, no more alcohol, thank you.'
On the floor where her memory care unit is, Williams said, 'The people are 90 and 80 and 70. I'm 60." She stays 'in the bedroom the majority of the time' and can't have visitors. She called being in the hospital this week a 'breath of fresh air.'
'I wish I was allowed to actually put on nice clothing and come see you in person, but I cannot,' she told the co-hosts. 'All of my clothing, all of my sneakers, all of my handbags, everything [is] in storage.'
The NYPD conducted a welfare check on Williams on March 10 and took her by ambulance to the hospital.
Williams called into Good Day New York on March 11 from the hospital to report that she underwent a cognitive evaluation and 'passed with flying colors.'
Williams, who was again on the line with Monterroso, said it was her idea to be 'independently tested,' noting, 'Getting out of [this] guardianship … is my No. 1 most important thing.'
The same day, Williams called the radio show The Breakfast Club, and Monterroso detailed how the welfare check went down.
Monterroso said she called authorities to report that Williams was 'isolated' and needed help. Multiple officers responded and came to Williams's room, where Monterroso was on the phone.
'I pleaded with the police, as if Wendy was my child, please, you need to get her off this floor. She is confined,' said Monterroso.
Williams added, 'I told [police], 'I am not incapacitated' … as I've been accused, and the floor that I live on is the memory unit — the people who live there don't remember anything, unlike me. Like, why am I here? What is going on? It's a cry for help.'
Williams said she got a 10 out of 10 on her cognitive test at the hospital. Monterroso said she actually passed two cognitive tests.
Williams also said that while she was hospitalized, she was told that Morrissey was there outside her room, but the guardian didn't come in to talk to her. Monterroso claimed Morrissey tried to prevent some of the independent testing, but Williams's personal attorney was present and authorized it, so that's why it was done.
Morrissey has not responded to Yahoo Entertainment's requests for comment.