Wendy Williams‘ family is speaking out. The 59-year-old former host of The Wendy Williams Show‘s loved ones issued a statement for the first time in a cover story for People. Keep reading to find out more… “We’ve all seen the images over the last few months — and, really, few years — of what has seemed like a spiral for my aunt,” says her niece Alex Finnie, who also appears in the new Lifetime documentary, Where Is Wendy Williams?, premiering this weekend (February 24). “It was shocking and heartbreaking to see her in this state.” The documentary follows her attempt to launch a comeback with a podcast, but ultimately ended up capturing her struggle with alcohol addiction and health issues, including Graves’ disease and lymphedema. “I don’t know what the hell is going on,” her driver says at one point in the documentary. “I think she’s losing memory.
She doesn’t know who I am sometimes.” The documentary crew stopped filming in April of 2023, and she entered a facility to treat “cognitive issues,” her manager and jeweler Will Selby says in the documentary.
Her son reveals in the documentary that doctors have connected these issues to alcohol use. She remains in the facility to this day, and her family says a court-appointed legal guardian is the only person who has unfettered access to her, via People.
Her family also says they don’t know where she is and cannot call her themselves, but she can call them. “The people who love her cannot see her,” says Wendy‘s sister and Alex‘s mom Wanda. “I think the big [question] is: How the hell did we get here?” Wendy claims in the documentary that her appointed guardian has stolen money from her.