Wendy Williams Says She Is”Not Cognitively Impaired” In New Interview

Wendy Williams is speaking out about her living conditions and mental health in a new interview. Speaking with The Breakfast Club on Thursday morning (Jan. 16) the famed broadcaster detailed an experience that she describes as “jail.” The 60-year-old was joined on the call by her niece Alex Finnie.

This is Williams’ first interview since the release of the controversial Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, and her team announcing her diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in February 2024. In November of that same year, her court-appointed guardian Sabrina E. Morrissey claimed her to be “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and legally incapacitated.”

In the phone call, Williams described her situation as being “trapped in a conservatorship,” adding later that “this system is broken,” and that she is experiencing “emotional abuse.”

“I am not cognitively impaired. But I feel like I am in prison,” Williams detailed to DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God, and guest host Loren LoRosa per USA Today. “I’m in this place where the people are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s. There’s something wrong with these people here on this floor.”

The former talk show host claims that the facility where she currently lives is high security with rules including not allowing incoming calls, no leaving, and no visitors.

“That’s been the reality since 2023,” detailed Finnie. “She’s sitting in that room that she’s sitting in, she’s there every day, all hours of the day, every week, every month, she’s not getting proper sunlight. I went to New York in October to visit her. And the level of security and the level of questions that there were in terms of, ‘Who am I? Why am I here? What’s the purpose?’ I mean, it was absolutely just horrible.”

Finnie continued to elaborate that she and the family may retaliate after the interview airs, claiming the family was not allowed to see Williams during the airing of the aforementioned documentary and is fearful she may be moved without notice or ability to make contact.

“I said, ‘You know, we do this, you’re ready for what’s on the other side?’ And as she said, ‘I have to do this. There’s nothing else I could do at this point,’” exclaimed Finnie. “She’s prepared for the fact that her phone might taken away. What you’re hearing now is a few minute clip of what we’ve been dealing with for the last several months and the last two, three years.”

Williams was last seen in public last month at her son’s graduation. She explained to The Breakfast Club that she had hoped to be able to attend her father’s 94th birthday celebration next month, emotionally pleading, “At 94, the day after that is not promised.”

Finnie urged fans to support Williams by using the hashtag #FreeWendy and signing the petition on Change.org, per Variety.

“My aunt sounds great,” shared Finnie. “I’ve seen her, in a very limited capacity, but I’ve seen her and we’re talking to her. This does not match an incapacitated person. And that’s why we say she’s in a luxury prison, because she is being held and she is being punished for whatever reason that other people are coming up with as to why she has to be kept in this position.”