Lifetime
Wendy Williams’ guardian is slamming Lifetime’s parent company for allegedly taking advantage of a “severely impaired person” and for reportedly paying the former talk show host a measly $82,000 for their controversial documentary about her.
On Monday, Sept. 16, William’s guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court, seven months after the Lifetime’s documentary “Where Is Wendy Williams?” premiered.
The complaint is against Lifetime’s parent company, A&E Television Networks, Lifetime Entertainment Services, EOne Productions, Creature Films and its executive producer Mark Ford.
In court documents obtained by The Post, the 75-page complaint alleges Williams was “highly vulnerable and clearly incapable of consenting to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited.”
The documents also claim that the documentary’s “true intentions” were to portray Williams “in a highly demeaning and embarrassing manner.”
“Where Is Wendy Williams?” aired on Feb. 24 and 25 after Morrissey tried to halt the premiere date in court.
One scene in the documentary showed Williams, 60, visiting her hometown of Asbury Park, NJ, and pointing out her childhood street, only to be told by a stranger that it’s on a different road.
Another scene showed a confused Williams yelling at her driver and former publicist to buy vape pens. After they arrived at her usual smoke shop, a disoriented Williams threw a tantrum.
Shortly before the series premiered, Williams’ family told People that the former talk show host — who was placed under financial guardianship in May 2022 after her bank, Wells Fargo, claimed she was “incapacitated” — is in a care facility. Her loved ones also claimed they can only speak to her when she calls them.
“Of course, if we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would’ve rolled a camera,” Ford told the Hollywood Reporter at the time.
The court docs allege that Morrissey “immediately sought to protect and to preserve [Williams’] dignity. But [A&E] fought to move ahead … without a valid contract and released without [Morrissey’s] consent.”
Williams, who hosted “The Wendy Williams Show” from 2008 to 2022, has been living under a legal court-ordered guardianship since May 2022. It oversees her finances and health.
In February 2023, Williams’ team revealed that she had been diagnosed the previous year with primary aggressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia.
Aphasia affects language and communication abilities, while frontotemporal dementia impacts behavior and cognitive functions.
Hollywood superstar Bruce Willis is also battling the same medical issues. He retired from acting in 2022 due to his aphasia and was diagnosed with FTD in 2023.
Williams’ care team released a statement in February 2024 explaining, “As Wendy’s fans are aware, in the past she has been open with the public about her medical struggles with Graves’ Disease and Lymphedema as well as other significant challenges related to her health.”
The statement continued, “Over the past few years, questions have been raised at times about Wendy’s ability to process information and many have speculated about Wendy’s condition, particularly when she began to lose words, act erratically at times and have difficulty understanding financial transactions.”
In the filing dated September 16, Morrissey and civil rights litigator Roberta Kaplan claim the network and defendants took advantage of Williams and should pay her for her medical care and supervision for the rest of her life.
The complaint alleges that the documentary engaged in “vicious exploitation” of Williams, adding, “By willfully taking advantage of a severely impaired, incapacitated person, Defendants have made millions on [Williams’] back, while [Williams] has received a paltry $82,000.”
The complaint said that this case came from “the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit [Williams], an acclaimed African-American entertainer who, tragically, suffers from dementia and, as a result, has become cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and legally incapacitated.”
It further claims that the network was “eager to sensationalize and profit” from Williams’ “cognitive and physical decline” and “took advantage of” the former talk show host “in the cruelest, most obscene way possible for their own financial gain, in a manner that truly shocks the conscience.”
The Post reached out to A&E for comment.