Wendy Williams, after denying claims she’s in cognitive decline, has signed a legal document asking a judge to end the 2022 court-ordered guardianship imposed on her.
The affidavit requesting freedom dropped hours after TMZ released an hourlong documentary on streaming service Tubi, “TMZ Presents: Saving Wendy,” in which the outlet says she is on the mend and plans to request a jury trial if the judge turns her down.
The former talk-show host has been in a care facility since September 2022, and in February 2024 her care team announced she had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aggressive aphasia, partly due to alcohol abuse. Now she says she doesn’t have it.
According to TMZ, a doctor selected by her lawyer will reevaluate the star next Tuesday, followed the day after by an emergency petition to press for a speedy hearing.
In an interview last month with “The Breakfast Club” radio show, Williams said she is “not cognitively impaired, no, but I feel like I am in prison,” adding that she’d been victimized by a “broken system.”
She had been out of the spotlight since 2021, abandoning “The Wendy Williams Show” as health complications overwhelmed her. She is also known to have Graves disease, an autoimmune condition that affects the thyroid, as well as lymphedema, another autoimmune condition. Her former producers have said it may well be “impossible” for her to return to television.
Details of her sobriety and mental health struggles emerged last year in the four-part documentary “Where Is Wendy Williams?”