Wendy Williams’s Guardian Files Complaint Over Lifetime Doc

Wendy Williams' Guardian: No Consent For Doc

Written by Jason P. Frank, a journalist for Vulture who reports on comedy, theater, and music.

Williams. Image by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.

Wendy Williams’s life continues to unfold in the spotlight, even though she has stepped back from public appearances. This September, her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed a lawsuit in New York claiming that Wendy is unable to give consent for a Lifetime documentary series about her life. The Los Angeles Times reports that Williams was diagnosed with early-onset dementia and aphasia in 2023, a fact she disclosed to the public in February 2024. She has been under guardianship since 2022. The series titled Where Is Wendy Williams? lists her as an executive producer. According to the lawsuit, Wendy is described as "highly vulnerable" and not capable of consenting to be filmed, let alone being subjected to humiliation and exploitation. The complaint seeks financial restitution from the defendants, which include A&E Networks, Lifetime’s parent company, and calls for the halting of the documentary series.

In the lawsuit, Morrissey argues that the contracts Williams may have signed, including an “on-camera talent agreement,” are not valid since they were not presented to her guardian. Filming for the documentary started in August 2022 and concluded in April 2023—just a month before Williams was first diagnosed. When the documentary's trailer was released on February 2, Morrissey tried to prevent the series from airing, but her plea was rejected by an appellate judge, as reported by the Times. The documentary team has expressed concerns about Williams's guardianship. “There’s a bill currently in the New York Legislature aimed at preventing guardian abuse and stopping guardians from limiting family access,” executive producer Mark Ford mentioned to Vulture on February 27, 2024. “I’m uncertain about the status of that bill, but this situation clearly illustrates a family that wishes to connect and participate, yet, for some reason, can’t.”

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