Wendy Williams’ Family Feared They’d Get The “Call That She Was Dead” Due To Alcoholism
Ahead of Lifetime’s premiere of the documentary, Where Is Wendy Williams?, the family of the plummeted TV and radio icon has spoken out on their fears regarding her current health state.
In a new cover story with PEOPLE, Wendy’s sister, niece and brother detailed witnessing her struggles with alcoholism over the past two and a half years — as she also battles Graves’ disease and lymphedema, an illness that causes her feet to swell.
According to the family, they constantly live in fear of getting “that call” that their loved one has succumb to her health issues and/or alcoholism.
“There were points during the past year when everyone in this family wondered whether that call that she was dead was going to come in the middle of the night,” the 59-year-old’s sister, Wanda, said. “Everybody in this family sat on pins and needles every single night with their cell phones right next to the bed.”
In a trailer for the forthcoming documentary, which premieres on Saturday (Feb. 24), Wendy can be seen arguing with her manager, Will Selby, over drinking an entire bottle of alcohol in a day. She even yells, “F**k You!” to him when he confronts her. And, according to the doc’s executive producer, Wendy “was already battling so much physically, and then it became clear that there were mental and addiction issues she was also battling.”
He added, “But all through it, she was adamant that she wanted to tell this story. We asked ourselves almost every day, ‘Is this helping Wendy or is this hurting her?’ And in the end we felt like it was helping her.” Wendy’s niece Alex, however, had this to say; “people got into something and didn’t realize how big and serious it was.”
According to Wendy’s older sister Wanda, the family tried their best to keep her on a strict “anti-alcohol” policy, but in return, the former daytime host began pushing everybody away, including her son, Kevin Hunter Jr.
In the trailer, Kevin Jr. can be heard speaking on his mother’s well-being and the belief that Wendy has “yes people” around her all the time. He also expressed that he feels her team isn’t doing a good job of protecting the 50-year-old powerhouse.
However, there seems to be different views on what may have set off Wendy’s decline — pinpointing the death of her mother, her divorce from her husband, the COVID-19 quarantines, losing her syndicated shows and other life events.
“She would be drunk on air,” a Wendy Show source told the outlet of Wendy’s early beginnings on TV. “Slowly, we started being like, ‘What’s going on with her?’” The show’s co-executive producer Suzanne Bass also noticed Wendy’s struggles with addiction. “I knew she was struggling. How could I not? As her situation grew worse, she pushed us away.”
Alex also gave insight on how loss may have also contributed to Wendy’s demise.
“[Wendy’s mom] Shirley, may she rest in peace, would always remind me that your aunt would trade everything that she has — every dime, every car, every wig — to be able to have a strong loving household and a loving husband,” Alex said. “That was ripped from her right after her son had to go off to college [in 2018]. Emotionally, it was just a lot. It was too much for her world.”
Wanda added, “When our mother passed, who was her greatest advocate and strongest support system out of anybody in this family, she never grieved.”
Additionally, Wendy also went through a public scandal with her husband, and filed for divorce after 21 years of marriage in 2019. At that time it was also revealed that he had gotten another woman pregnant. Wendy’s brother Tommy said, “It put her back into that dark space.”
Per PEOPLE, the doc’s crew stopped filming in April 2023, after they found Wendy in her apartment with her eyes rolled back into her head. That is when Wendy entered a facility to treat “cognitive issues,” according to Selby. Kevin Jr. also added that her “cognitive issues” were linked to alcohol abuse, per doctors.
As Wendy allegedly remains in a facility, her family claims that no one has access to her aside from her court appointed guardian. Her family says they don’t know where she is and cannot call her, but she can call them.
“All I want to know is that my sister is going to live and that she’s going to be healthy,” Wanda said.
Read the full cover story featuring Wendy Williams’ family here and watch the documentary on Lifetime or stream it online free with DirecTV Stream.
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