Here’s Why The View Ignored Wendy Williams’ Dementia Diagnosis During Thursday’s Segment

Rebecca Iannucci
·2 min read
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Wendy Williams’ late-breaking dementia diagnosis went unmentioned until the closing seconds of Thursday’s The View, despite an interview with Williams’ niece earlier in the episode.

“We wanted to update you on some news that has just broke concerning Wendy Williams,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg shared during The View‘s final moments. “Wendy and her care team just released a statement that she’s been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. Our hearts go straight out to her.”

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Goldberg’s announcement — which came hours after a formal statement detailing the diagnosis was released on Williams’ behalf — was met with gasps from The View’s studio audience, but the show notably did not mention Williams’ diagnosis while speaking with her niece Alex Finnie in a previous segment. A View source tells TVLine that Finnie’s interview was pre-taped, prompting Williams’ health update to be acknowledged at the end of the live broadcast.

During the interview, which teased Lifetime’s upcoming Where Is Wendy Williams? documentary, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked Finnie about the noticeable cognitive issues with which Williams appears to be struggling in the documentary’s trailer.

“What do you and the family believe is going on?” Griffin asked. “Is there more than just the Graves’ disease, the lymphedema and the addiction there?”

“There’s more happening. I would love it if my aunt could be here today to tell her story, but unfortunately she’s not, so I’m doing the best I can,” Finnie replied. “But yes, as a family, we know that there’s more there… People are going to see that throughout the documentary. I think people are going to walk away saying, ‘This is more than what we realized.'”

Finnie also noted that Williams has been receiving medical care in an unnamed facility since 2023, but because of Williams’ current legal guardianship, Williams must be the one to call her family members instead of them reaching out to her.

“She sounds really good,” Finnie said. “I haven’t seen her, but we’re able to have full conversations, she’s excited about her future, she talks about the possibility of getting back to work. But like I always remind her, first and foremost is your health.”

Where Is Wendy Williams? airs Saturday, Feb. 24 and Sunday, Feb. 25 at 8/7c on Lifetime.

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