Former TV host is 'permanently incapacitated'

Former TV host is ‘permanently incapacitated’

Wendy Williams’ well being has taken a flip for the more serious amid her battle with dementia and aphasia.

The previous “Wendy Williams Present” host, 60, has grow to be “cognitively impaired and completely incapacitated,” attorneys for Williams’ guardian Sabrina Morrissey revealed in a memo filed in courtroom earlier this month, in response to courtroom paperwork obtained by USA TODAY on Tuesday.

Morrissey has been pursuing authorized motion in opposition to A&E Tv Networks, Lifetime Leisure Providers and others concerned within the launch of “The place is Wendy Williams?,” a docuseries on Williams’ abrupt exit from public life launched in February.

Williams is an “acclaimed entertainer who, tragically, has been by early-onset dementia,” the Nov. 12 letter reads. In an amended September grievance, Morrissey accused the defendants of taking “benefit of (Williams) within the cruelest, most obscene approach doable for their very own monetary acquire.”

USA TODAY has reached out to a consultant for Williams for added particulars on her situation.

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Elsewhere within the memo, Morrissey’s attorneys additionally requested the elimination of Williams’ private info from the protection’s portion of a joint standing letter. The main points pertain to a guardianship continuing that Williams’ financial institution Wells Fargo initiated in January 2022 to assist shield the TV character’s funds. The submitting for that continuing was later positioned beneath seal.

“The proposed redactions are very narrowly drawn and don’t undermine the general public’s means to grasp the core info and authorized arguments at challenge on this litigation or to in any other case monitor the federal courts’ execution of their judicial operate,” Morrissey’s attorneys argue.

Williams’ representatives revealed in February that she was recognized with main progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2023. In a follow-up assertion to USA TODAY on the time, they stated Williams is “capable of do many issues for herself” and was concerned within the choice course of for her care staff.

Background:Wendy Williams Lifetime documentary will air regardless of her guardian’s lawsuit, choose guidelines

Wendy Williams’ Lifetime documentary airs regardless of guardian’s lawsuit

In a February lawsuit, Morrissey tried to dam Lifetime’s broadcast of “The place is Wendy Williams?” which included footage of the previous talk-show host and interviews.

Morrissey sued for injunction reduction and a brief restraining order, each measures that can be utilized to maintain a celebration from doing a sure motion. Nevertheless, an appellate choose dominated within the TV community’s favor, arguing that such a ban could be an “impermissible prior restraint on speech that violates the First Modification of the U.S. Structure.”

Lifetime beforehand aired a biopic about Williams’ life, “Wendy Williams: The Film,” and a documentary, “Wendy Williams: What a Mess,” each in 2021. In a press release on the time, the community stated the docuseries “gives a uncooked, trustworthy and unfiltered actuality of Wendy’s life after she was positioned beneath monetary guardianship, shedding mild on the vulnerabilities that has turned Wendy into the Scorching Matter herself.”

‘Abdomen-turning’:Wendy Williams acquired small sum for Lifetime doc, lawsuit alleges

In an amended grievance filed in September, Morrissey claimed Williams was not able to consenting to be filmed for the documentary, regardless of being credited as an govt producer on the mission. Moreover, Williams allegedly acquired round $82,000 for the “stomach-turning” four-episode sequence.

“This can be a paltry sum for the usage of extremely invasive, humiliating footage that portrayed her ‘within the complicated throes of dementia,’ whereas Defendants, who’ve profited on the streaming of the Program have seemingly already earned hundreds of thousands,” the grievance learn.

In response, Morrissey requested to the courtroom that earnings from the documentary go to Williams, as she is going to want “important funding to supply for correct medical care and supervision for the remainder of her life.”

Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, Brendan Morrow and Jay Stahl, USA TODAY