Latest news with #TheWendyWilliamsShow
USA Today
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
What old Wendy Williams show clips predicted about Diddy, Cassie amid trial
What old Wendy Williams show clips predicted about Diddy, Cassie amid trial Show Caption Hide Caption Wendy Williams Says She Is Not Incapacitated In New Interview In a pre-taped phone interview with 'The View,' the former talk show host addressed her recent hospital visit and independent psych evaluation. unbranded - Entertainment "My thing about when you date a mogul, is that it's really difficult to avoid them," Wendy Williams blurted out from her iconic plush purple chair. "You never know when they're going to pop up on the scene," she continued. In December 2015, a "hot topic" on the talk show host's eponymous daytime program focused on the sudden breakup of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs and his much younger then-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura Fine. The former radio personality was a longtime frenemy of Combs, often using "The Wendy Williams Show" to gab and gossip about the "I'll Be Missing You" hitmaker's personal life. Will how we treat victims change? The Diddy trial details are worse than anyone expected. Fast forward nearly a decade: Combs was arrested in September on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution following a monthslong federal investigation. He was indicted but has pleaded not guilty on all counts. And as his federal sex-crimes trial enters its fifth week, fans have resurfaced Williams' comments on Combs and are wondering if she predicted his fate. "Puffy," as Williams called him, now sits in Brooklyn prison. (The daytime diva herself lives in her own self-described "prison" amid a controversial guardianship; her show ended in 2022 after a prolonged health-related absence.) Ventura Fine, now a lowkey mom-of-two remarried to an up-and-coming actor, became the star witness in Combs' trial. And with Williams off air, loyal "Wendy watchers" are using archival online clips as reruns. Wendy Williams: Diddy, Cassie relationship was always a 'Hot Topic' In the 2015 clip, Williams quipped that Ventura Fine "broke up with (Combs), and I'm sure she'll be back soon ... or she's got cache now." Williams was right. Ventura Fine returned, testifying in court last month that although she "loved (Combs) very much," she was often coaxed back by his violent threats. Williams predicted that Ventura Fine could end up with another mogul – one of many observations the talk show host foreshadowed about Combs and the "Me & U" singer. "Once you date a superstar, you'd be foolish not to use that cache to bounce to the next superstar," Williams said. "At this point in her life, she's spent eight years of her life being flown around the world in private places and doing the best and wearing the best." Williams added that Ventura Fine had "allegedly been avoiding Puffy." "I thought she was a professional girlfriend, but apparently, she's over in South Africa filming 'Honey 3.' Now honey, I didn't even know there was a 'Honey 2,' OK?" Williams said with her signature shade. In court, it was revealed that Ventura Fine was once romantically linked to "Sinners" actor Michael B. Jordan while filming musical drama "Honey 3: Dare to Dance" in 2015. Her ex-best friend Kerry Morgan testified that she "was trying to leave" a "jealous" Combs and started talking to Jordan shortly before the two-month trip. "He can hire a plane right now, zoom it to South Africa, land on the roof of the hotel where she's staying, pay people off, give me the key and let me up in her room. Like I'm already paranoid as a person, but to know that a person could swoop down on me in the middle of nothing would scare the bejesus out of me," Williams said. Two years later, in 2017, fans zeroed in on a lengthy interview between Williams and Combs that seemingly featured awkward tension when Wiliams said "as the mother of a now 16-year-old..." before Combs interrupted her and said, "Mhm, who I met backstage. He's a great young man." Williams, appearing to stumble through her sentence, telling a "nervous" Combs that "you represent a lot to a lot of people in general," adding that the music mogul is "an example to people who aren't Black, like, 'Yes we can, yes we can.' You're an example to boys, like your boys, my boys, their boys, boys in general." But the next year, Williams revisited the pair's relationship as a topic of discussion. "Puffy's 48. Cassie's 32. 11 years of her life. I was asked during our morning meeting, 'Do I think that she wasted 11 years.' I said, 'well, in a lot of ways, yeah,'" Williams said. "She probably doesn't know how to apply for a mortgage; she has probably always been on his insurance, so she needs an insurance card, signor or something," Williams said in 2018, chiding the audience for laughing. At the time, the "Wendy" show host added, "I like them together and, on the other hand, it wasn't 11 years wasted because Puffy introduced her to a world that she would never know." But in her testimony at the start of the trial, Ventura Fine painted a far more sinister picture: For over a decade, the model and actress alleges that she was forced to participate in Combs' "freak offs" – sex performances with various male escorts around the world. When she attempted to leave, Ventura Fine said that Combs and his associates tracked her down and threatened to release "freak offs" footage. Social media users miss Wendy Williams' Diddy commentary amid trial As the trial began, some social media users missed Williams' blunt delivery, a change of pace from present daytime television's overly positive tone of "spirit tunnels" and song covers. "She would've been having a field day on hot topics right now," one person commented. Another person said, "I can hear Wendy saying 'clap if you think Puffy is guilty.'" In late May, another X commenter said that "Wendy Williams would've had the highest ratings in daytime history covering Diddy's trial this week!" On TikTok, another popular platform for Williams fans, one TMZ video about the host's guardianship on radio show "The Breakfast Club" was flooded with supportive comments after her former mentee Charlamagne Tha God mentioned that she "got fired from Hot 97 years ago because of Diddy" and she said, "Diddy done." "She sounds like she got her life back," one said as another commented, "Why can't she just start doing a weekly gossip podcast." "She got me with Diddy done," another user said. Contributing: Aysha Bagchi, Patrick Ryan, Edward Segarra
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fans rally to end Wendy Williams's guardianship
Fans of Wendy Williams gathered on Hollywood Boulevard on Tuesday morning to demand her release from her current guardianship and the assisted-living facility she's currently living in. A small group of people stood on Williams's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the same time as another Free Wendy protest was underway in New York. Paris Hilton's nonprofit grants $1M to women-owned businesses The former daytime talk show host has been at that facility to address cognitive issues after being diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2024. However, in a January interview with 'The Breakfast Club,' Williams denied that she was cognitively impaired and called the facility 'a prison.' Since the interview, Williams has continued to be outspoken about her guardian and conservatorship. The former radio host has been under legal guardianship since 2022. During the East Coast rally, Williams was spotted waving to demonstrators outside. 'Full House' star Dave Coulier says he's cancer free 'They have posters and t-shirts,' she told People Magazine. 'I'm standing here and looking out the window because I like things like that. I love nothing better than to stop and pose.' 'It's nice to see regular people, but it's even more important at this time in my life to see media,' Williams continued. 'At this point in life, I can't trust a lot of people and I can't even get into who I can't trust, but there are people that — oh my gosh, I can't trust them as far as I can throw them.' From 2008 to 2021, Williams hosted the popular daytime talk show 'The Wendy Williams Show.' She stepped away due to health issues tied to lymphedema and Graves' disease. The show aired its final episode in June 2022. She was placed under legal guardianship in May 2022 when Wells Fargo claimed she was an 'incapacitated person' and the 'victim of undue influence and financial exploitation,' according to The Hollywood Reporter. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NEWS OF THE WEEK: Wendy Williams to make TV appearance amid guardianship battle
Nearly four years after she took a leave of absence from The Wendy Williams Show, ABC has reveale that she will be joining the hosts of The View via a phone link on Friday 14 March, as she wages a legal battle to end her guardianship. Williams has lately made attempts to speak out from her assisted-living facility, where she has been living in a restrictive memory unit, that gives her few privileges and little right of movement. Last month her guardianship allowed her to fly to Miami to celebrate her father's 94th birthday for a few days.
The Independent
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
The rise and fall of ‘shock jock diva' Wendy Williams as beloved star fights for freedom
During a Halloween special episode seven years ago, draped in a glittering Lady Liberty costume, talk show host Wendy Williams stunned viewers when she suddenly fainted live on air. Producers dramatically cut to a six-minute commercial break and the host reappeared on camera. At the time Williams, now 60, attributed it to overheating in her costume. But a few months later, it became apparent that the viral moment in 2017 also marked the beginning of the decline in her health that would change the course of her career. With her iconic 'How you doin?' catchphrase and larger-than-life personality, Williams was the outspoken queen of daytime TV. From 2008 to 2021, she fronted The Wendy Williams Show for 13 seasons and held favorable ratings while going head-to-head with the hugely popular The Ellen DeGeneres Show. But a series of health setbacks plagued her final years on the hit show. Just four months after the fainting episode, Williams was diagnosed with Graves' disease, a condition of the immune system that affects the function of the thyroid, and Lymphedema, a chronic condition that causes swelling. She defiantly carried on with the show after the diagnosis, but the condition forced her to take extended breaks. Her final appearance was in the fall of 2021. Her show was canceled in 2022 without the star even appearing in the final episode. That same year, Williams was placed under a financial guardianship after her bank 'documented a pattern of unusual and disturbing events.' Then, there was a period of darkness until 2024, when she revealed a devastating diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. She has been living in a Manhattan assisted living facility ever since. This week, Williams was taken to a New York hospital after she dropped a note from the window of her assisted living facility. 'Help! Wendy!!' it read. The troubling episode is the latest in a series of struggles in Williams's personal life over the years. She has battled drug and alcohol addiction, suffered multiple miscarriages and gone through two divorces. Throughout it all, though, the 'shock jock diva' has entertained fans with her no-nonsense and often brutal interview style since the 80s - that led to her rise into daytime talk-show powerhouse. Early career and drug addiction Born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1964, it was clear that Williams was destined to be on the airwaves from an early age. As a girl she 'spoke too loud, too fast and too much,' she wrote in her 2004 memoir Wendy's Got the Heat. At Boston's Northeastern University, Williams discovered her love of broadcasting and hosted her own music show on the college's radio station WRBB. After graduating, Williams made a name for herself working at radio stations in New York and Philadelphia in the 1980s and 90s. Her career was just taking off and with it came a wild social life that quickly slipped into heavy cocaine use. Williams previously admitted she became 'a functioning addict' during her early career. 'I was a young Jersey girl turning the city upside down,' she told PEOPLE in 2014. 'I wanted to live on the edge.' 'I'd work from 3 in the afternoon until 7 at night, get off and party until 7 in the morning - then sleep until 2, go to the radio station and do it all over again,' she once said. Williams said she kicked the habit when she turned 29 after 'burning up [her] insides.' Chaotic love life and opening up to listeners about fertility struggles Her love life was also tumultuous. In 1994, Williams was briefly married to a salesman, Bert Girigorie, but they separated five months later. That same year, she met her second husband, Kevin Hunter, and married him in 1999. Williams tragically suffered multiple miscarriages with Hunter. "I suffered several miscarriages including two at five months," she said in the 2024 documentary. "That's when you have the clothes already picked out, the nursery is already painted. They ask you do you want a funeral or do you want the cremation." Sharing her heartbreak with her listeners became a kind of therapy for the star and it also proved successful for her show. During a three-year stint in Philadelphia at WUSL, the radio host boosted the ratings from 14th to 2nd place because of her openness with listeners, talking candidly about her fertility struggles and previous drug addiction. In 2000, Williams gave birth to her son, Kevin Hunter Jr. Big radio break that led to TV debut Whilst navigating motherhood, Williams's big career break came in New York City in 2001 at WBLS, where she was given her own show titled The Wendy Williams Experience. She spent the best part of a decade gossiping, giving readers advice on sex and relationships and grilling celebrities in what became her statement brash interview style. In one infamous exchange in 2003, she interrogated Whitney Houston about the late singer's drug addiction. 'My bark is worse than my bite,' she later said of the interview. 'By being tall and outgoing, people mistake that for being overpowering, overbearing, loud and being a bully.' Toward the end of the 2000s, Williams was ready to move on from radio and break into TV. In 2008, The Wendy Williams Show debuted on TV during a trial run and was a hit. It was picked up by FOX in 2009 for a full season and Williams never looked back. During its run, the show was nominated for four daytime Emmy awards and Williams enjoyed her new fame. She interviewed the biggest names, including President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka, Jennifer Lopez and Venus and Serena Williams. She also appeared on Dancing with the Stars and had cameo roles on 30 Rock and Law & Order. Marriage breakdown and rehab stint In the show's final few years, Williams struggled with more health setbacks, having to take time off, and in 2019 the tabloid press ran started to run stories that her husband was cheating on her. It became too much for Williams and she turned to alcohol to cope. Her family sent her to rehab, she revealed on her show. That same year, she addressed rumors that Hunter had cheated on her live on air. 'I want to shout out my husband,' she said. 'I am still wearing my ring.' A month later, Williams filed for divorce after it emerged the rumors were true and Hunter had fathered a child with another woman. When The Wendy Williams Show abruptly ended in 2022, the star was appointed a legal guardian to oversee her financial affairs after her bank – Wells Fargo – 'documented a pattern of unusual and disturbing events' related to her welfare and finances. It marked a dark time in the star's life and she disappeared from the public eye until 2024, when a four-part Lifetime documentary aptly titled Where is Wendy Williams? aired. The documentary shocked America. Williams had rarely been seen for two years and viewers were stunned to see her looking so pale and fragile, a far cry from the glamorous TV presenter they had known for over a decade. In footage, Williams often appeared disorientated and confused. The documentary moved the dial on how Williams was perceived by the public. Fans became seriously concerned and, ultimately, sad for the star. The series also revealed she still had a drinking problem. In the documentary, her son, 24-year-old Kevin Hunter Jr, said that doctors diagnosed her with alcohol-induced dementia in 2021. The documentary ultimately raised more questions than it answered. Her court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrisey, even tried to block it from airing, claiming that it took advantage of Williams 'in the cruelest, most obscene way possible.' Two days before the documentary aired, Williams's team announced she had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, the same condition as Bruce Willis. Producers said they didn't know she had the condition while filming. Williams has been living in an assisted living facility in New York, which she has likened to being in 'prison,' and she has questioned her diagnosis. In January this year, Williams asked The Breakfast Club hosts DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Jess Hilarious: 'Do I seem that way, god damn it?' 'I am not cognitively impaired, you know what I'm saying? But I feel like I'm in prison,' she said of the care facility. 'I am definitely isolated. To talk to these people who live here, that is not my cup of tea... I'm in this place where the people are in their Nineties and their Eighties and their Seventies… There's something wrong with these people here on this floor.' Her family is now fighting to get Williams out of the state's care. Her brother Tommy Williams has insisted she is 'in great shape mentally and physically,' he told Us Weekly. Looking ahead, Williams says she just wants to get 'back to work.' But for now, her fight for freedom is the priority. 'Staying in New York, going back to work will I do? I have options,' she told Good Day New York this week. 'But in terms of getting out of guardianship, that is my number one most important thing.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wendy Williams' Health Update: Judge Lisa Sokoloff Threatens Restrictions
Beloved talk show host has been having health issues since 2023. Following a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia and aphasia, Wendy was placed under legal guardianship. A judge ordered her moved to a locked facility for dementia patients. Recently, the star of The Wendy Williams Show filmed a documentary with TMZ about her situation. I happened to watch it just the other day. She seemed rational and coherent, although understandably frustrated with her situation. But the judge in her guardianship case seems to have taken Wendy's documentary personally. Judge Lisa Sokoloff says she's tired of Wendy's 'behavior' and wants her moved to another, likely more secure, facility. Admittedly, Lifetime's Where Is Wendy Williams? documentary didn't show her in the best light. TMZ's Saving Wendy documentary shows Wendy confined to her apartment in an assisted living community, the Coterie. She did all of her interviews for the documentary by phone from behind the window of her fifth-floor apartment, which she calls a 'luxury prison.' In her current facility, Wendy is not allowed to have a cell phone and cannot receive calls. There is no internet, and she's rarely allowed visitors. Most of the residents on her floor are much older and sicker than she is, so she has little human interaction. She gets no fresh air and eats all her meals in her room alone. It is cruel to keep anyone confined under such harsh conditions. My mother had dementia the last years of her life. She lived in a locked dementia unit, but she was kept active and engaged. I was able to visit and take her to lunch often, which she really enjoyed. After viewing the documentary, Judge Sokoloff sent an email to Wendy's legal team. She wants the talk show host moved to a new facility. 'I have always contended that [Wendy] will be given the independence she can handle,' she wrote. 'I question how well she has handled the independence she has been given.' Wendy's lawyer quickly responded that it wouldn't be right to move her to an even more restrictive facility. The isolation surely has an impact on her mental and physical health. Multiple insiders believe the judge is angry about Wendy speaking to the media. The judge has repeatedly warned Wendy not to talk to the media. Why not? Has Wendy suddenly been stripped of her First Amendment rights? The judge's reasoning was revealed in another recent email to Wendy's attorney: 'Tell your client that if she wants a jury she should refrain from trying to poison the jury pool.' On March 10, Wendy was taken to the Lenox Hill Hospital, when police were called after Wendy's niece took her to dinner. Wendy reportedly passed a mental competency test 'with flying colors.' Still undergoing testing, Judge Sokoloff wants Wendy returned to the Coterie. 'The hospital wants to discharge her,' she wrote. '[Wendy's guardian] has facilities who, despite her behavior, are willing to assess her. She needs to go back to the Coterie until a new facility can be found.' Sources close to Wendy say she's terrified of losing even more of her limited independence. They're calling the judge's reaction to her talking about her situation 'pure retaliation.' TMZ Presents: Saving Wendy is now streaming on the free service Tubi. TELL US – DO YOU THINK WENDY SHOULD BE RELEASED TO A LESS RESTRICTIVE FACILITY? The post Wendy Williams' Health Update: Judge Lisa Sokoloff Threatens Restrictions appeared first on Reality Tea.
