Wendy Williams Says She’s ‘Not Cognitively Impaired’ Amid Guardianship

Wendy Williams has been in a guardianship since 2022, and last year, her caretakers revealed that she was living with dementia and aphasia. But now, Williams is disputing that. The former talk-show host went on The Breakfast Club with her niece Alex to deny reports about her mental state. “I am not cognitively impaired, you know what I’m saying? No,” Williams said. “But I feel like I’m in prison, you understand what I’m saying?” Williams explained that she cannot leave her room in her New York care facility, cannot receive incoming phone calls, and has difficulty taking visitors. “Look, I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner right here, on the bed, right?” she said. “I watch TV, I listen to radio, I look at the window, I talk on the phone.” Williams also said she has tried to ask about the pills she’s been given (which she said she hasn’t taken), but doctors will not tell her what they are for. “Excuse me, there are seven pills. I have no idea what is this pill doing,” she said. Alex called her facility “a luxury prison.”

Wendy Williams said she isn’t incapacitated or impaired, she said she’s in JAIL pic.twitter.com/igMXDI3XpV

— Ichigo Niggasake (@SomaKazima) January 16, 2025

Williams was placed in her guardianship after her bank believed she was being financially abused. She entered a care facility in April 2023. But last year, her family criticized her care, claiming they have trouble visiting and communicating with her. “All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way, and they walked out, and the family is completely excluded,” her sister, Wanda, told People. In a 2024 Lifetime documentary, Williams claimed her guardian, Sabrina E. Morrissey, had stolen money from her. (She told The Breakfast Club her apartment had been sold and her items were in storage.) Morrissey is suing Lifetime over the documentary, arguing she could not consent to the documentary; Lifetime is countersuing. “Me and the person you were talking about, this guardian person, we watched that four-part thing on TV together,” Williams told The Breakfast Club. She added, “I saw all of that, by the way.”

Williams, whose talk show was canceled as she dealt with other health issues in 2021, said she has “been caught up in this system” for three years. “What do I think about being abused?” she said. “Listen, look, look. This system is broken, you know, this system that I’m in. This system has falsified, oof, a lot.” Host Charlamagne Tha God replied, “They said you’re cognitively impaired and you’re incapacitated.” Wendy countered, “Do I seem that way, goddammit?” Alex is encouraging fans to use the hashtag #FreeWendy and sign a Change.org petition.

Related

• All the Revelations From Lifetime’s Where Is Wendy Williams? Documentary
• Wendy Williams’s Guardian Says She Couldn’t Consent to Lifetime Doc
• Wendy Williams Has Dementia and Aphasia