The famed television personality and host is hoping to gain back control of her life after being placed under a court-appointed guardianship since 2022.
As Wendy Williams continues to fight for her freedom from a guardianship she’s been under since 2022, more is coming to light about the circumstances that led to it — including that she may have initially been on board.
The 60-year-old former TV host’s healthcare advocate, Ginalisa Monterroso, told People magazine that Williams wanted to be placed in her guardianship under Sabrina Morrissey; she just didn’t expect it to be so restrictive of her personal autonomy and rights.
In 2022, her Wells Fargo bank accounts were frozen after her son Kevin Hunter Jr.—her power of attorney at the time—took a large sum of money from her account, alleging she had signed off on the transaction. The banker froze Williams’ accounts after her financial advisor said she wasn’t of sound mind. The bank petitioned a New York court to have Williams placed under a temporary financial guardianship. In court, the bank said it took this course of action because “Wells Fargo has strong reason to believe that [Williams] is the victim of undue influence and financial exploitation.”
Wells Fargo said it was acting based on “reports of the financial advisor, who has recently witnessed telltale signs of exploitation, including [Williams]’ own expressed apprehensions” and from “other independent third parties who know [Williams] well and share these concerns.”
The following year, Williams was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and dementia and ultimately placed in an assisted living facility in New York City under strict lockdown on the memory floor. Monterroso explained to People that Williams thought involving the courts would protect her financially.
“She wanted to make sure nobody’s in her money, and she would be fine,” Monterroso said. “She kind of felt like, ‘Hey, I have the court. They’re going to assign me a money person. I’m going to be good.’ In no way did she think that her whole life was going to be taken away from her.”
The health advocate noted that she knows a lot of people would have questioned the guardianship path more, “But when everything is happening so quickly, and the bank is saying, ‘Somebody’s trying to take your money, and there’s something going on, you’re just trying to kind of save yourself.”
She added, “Why would you not trust the courts, right? Why would the courts become your enemy?”
Under Williams’ guardianship, she has lost the ability to decide where to live, how to spend her money, or have a bank account. She can’t vote, marry, or even choose the doctors she’d like to use or what friends can visit. To travel, she has to get permission from Morrissey and sometimes Judge Lisa A. Sokoloff, who is overseeing her affairs.
“You have no rights,” Monterroso stressed. “Somebody in prison has more rights than a person put under a guardianship.”
Since the TV personality kicked up the dust and garnered attention to her situation following high-profile appearances on “The Breakfast Club,” “The View,” and “Good Day New York,” momentum to potentially end the guardianship has begun.
There has been discussion of more testing to prove Williams’ claims that she’s not incapacitated, and she’s gearing up for a trial by jury to determine her case, though it has yet to be scheduled.
“This is something that she’s been wanting to say, and she just can’t wait to get her story out,” Monterroso said of Williams wanting to prove she’s not incapacitated. “And at the end of the day, she’s going to have a trial by jury, and it will be the jury who will be making the decision.”
On Tuesday, April 1, fans, carrying #FreeWendy fliers and signs and dressed in specially designed T-shirts, gathered outside Williams’ window at the facility in New York City to protest her guardianship.
Speaking to People magazine by phone as the demonstration unfolded, she told the outlet it felt “very good” to see the show of support. There was also reportedly a second rally on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
While getting emotional, she said, “I’m standing here and looking out the window because I like things like that. I love nothing better than to stop and pose.”
She also added that, between the growing attention to her case and the movement to have it ended, she’s feeling confident.
“It will absolutely 1000% happen,” she said. She even has plans for when she’s back in control of her life.
“When I get out of the situation, I’m staying in New York where I’m comfortable,” she said, adding, “I can’t wait to fall in love; I will not lie about that.”
In the meantime, she wishes the narrative around her son’s involvement would quiet down, along with any rumors or statements from others.
“Listen, let me tell you something — unless you hear from me [or from] my niece Alex [Finnie] or my friend Suzanne Bass or anybody in my family …. That’s [the] real me,” she said. “If anybody else is doing the talking, [it’s] stupid bulls—.”
