Who Is Wendy Williams’ Ex-Husband? Their Divorce Put Her in a ‘Dark Space’
Before their divorce, Wendy Williams’ husband was a constant fixture in the daytime talk show host’s life—even as she openly navigated her struggles with addiction and various health issues throughout the years. Now that these struggles have advanced to include dementia and aphasia, the spotlight is back on the media mogul’s closest relationships as fans wonder how her past marriages may have influenced her circumstances today.
The former radio personality’s personal life is discussed at length in Lifetime’s Where Is Wendy Williams?, a two-part documentary series airing on February 24 and February 25, 2024. As it turns out, the last man to call himself Wendy Williams’ husband is also mentioned in the documentary. “I don’t care about him,” Williams says at one point in the film, per People.
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In a separate interview with People magazine, Williams’ niece, Alex, described the emotional toll that the divorce took on her aunt. “[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,” she shared with the outlet. “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.”
Williams’ brother, Tommy, agreed with his niece. “It put her back into that dark space,” he told the magazine.
Who were Wendy Williams’ husbands?
Wendy Williams has been married twice in her life. Her first marriage was to Bert Girigorie, a salesman who she met while working at a radio station in New York City. Their marriage, however, was short lived and only lasted from 1994 to 1995. Following her divorce from Girigorie, Williams went on to meet her second husband, Kevin Hunter, who would eventually become a central figure in her life and career as the future father of her child and her business manager. The pair got married in 1999 and spent over 20 years together before finalizing their divorce in 2020.
Kevin Hunter (1999 – 2020)
Kevin Hunter, a former hair salon owner, entered Wendy Williams’ life in the late 1990s, marking the beginning of a relationship that would define much of her career. The two met at a skating rink in 1994. They went on to tie the knot in 1999, and they welcomed their only son, Kevin Hunter Jr., the following year.
Despite having no prior experience in the television industry, Hunter played a major role in Williams’ rise to fame, serving as her manager and business partner. However, their marriage was not without its challenges. The couple’s relationship weathered multiple cheating scandals throughout the years, including a particularly devastating incident that allegedly took place right after the birth of their son. Williams’ opened up about the moment in her 2001 autobiography, Wendy’s Got the Heat, in which she reveals she caught Hunter on a late-night phone call with his mistress. Despite the affair, Williams decided to forgive Hunter and stay together.
However, the cracks in their relationship deepened over the years. The final straw came when it was revealed that Hunter had fathered a child with another woman, a revelation confirmed by Williams herself during an interview with The New York Times. “Kevin had a major indiscretion that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. An indiscretion that I will not deal with,” Williams told the publication in August 2019. “I never thought that I would be in this position. I’m a very forgiving person, but there’s one thing that I could never be a part of, and that one thing happened.”
Appearing on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show in 2021, Williams spoke more about the extent of Hunter’s infidelity, labeling him a “serial” cheater and sharing that she was aware of his extramarital affairs “almost since the beginning” of their 25-year relationship. Despite these hurdles, Williams remained committed to the relationship for over 20 years until she filed for divorce in April 2019 amid mounting speculation and public scrutiny.
Bert Girigorie (1994 – 1995)
Bert Girigorie, Wendy Williams’ first husband, played a brief role in her romantic history. The pair tied the knot in 1994 and split after five months of marriage, later finalizing their divorce about 18 months later. While the details surrounding their relationship remain relatively private, Girigorie previously opened up about the daytime TV host’s “bizarre” behavior during their relationship in a 2019 interview with RadarOnline.
“It was very bizarre. She just turned into a different person. I don’t know what was going on,” he said of their relationship. “I didn’t understand a lot of things that she did. I didn’t understand what her motivations were.”
Girigorie says their marriage began to fall apart after they “had a big blowout, and the relationship became very strained.” He went on to suggest that Williams’ behavior could have been linked to drug use. Williams, who has been open about the fact that she had an addiction to cocaine during the ’90s, apparently kept her drug use hidden from Girigorie. “I know she said she was doing drugs but she kept that away from me,” he shared with the outlet. “I assumed that she was but I didn’t know anything about it.”
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