Wendy Williams called in for an interview with hosts of The View on Friday, just days after police had escorted the former daytime host out of the Manhattan facility where she has been living with a diagnosis of dementia and aphasia since 2023.
On Tuesday, Williams left the assisted living facility where she’s currently residing while under the supervision of a court-appointed guardian. She was taken to a New York hospital for evaluation following a call placed for a welfare check and while at the hospital, she passed a cognitive test, she claims. As she told The View on Friday morning, she also went to dinner before heading back to the facility on Manhattan’s west side. On Wednesday, Williams had appeared on The Breakfast Club radio show to discuss what happened and her situation in detail.
“I just needed a breath of fresh air,” Williams told The View’s panel of hosts by phone. “I needed to see the doctors, so that’s why I went to the hospital. And then while I was at the hospital, I also got blood drawn for my thyroid. But most importantly, at the hospital, it was my choice to get an independent evaluation on my incapacitation.
“They say I have incapacitation… I do not,” Williams asserted.
The interview moved into a discussion of Williams’ distaste for her court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrissey. The former daytime star, who was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2023, claims that Morrissey is controlling multiple aspects of her life and has placed her in the facility where she is now living on the 5th floor “memory ward,” where Williams says the other patients are at least a decade older than her and don’t have memory retention — but that she does. In November 2024, Morrissey described Williams as “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled and legally incapacitated.”
“I don’t want Sabrina [Morrissey], period,” Williams declared to the hosts at one point on Friday.
After host Sunny Hostin thanked Williams for supporting her earlier in her career as a broadcaster, she asked a question about keeping her spirits up at this time of her life. Launching into her response, Willians soon became indignant, then emotional as her answer veered into a discussion of Morrissey and the judge who deemed a guardian necessary. As she spoke, Williams’s language became confused.
“I’m glad that you’re talking with me about that, you know, I am a college-educated woman, you know. I’m a global the international person, from radio to television, you know, I’ve been doing important things all of my life,” she said, “And these two people don’t look like me, they don’t dress like me, they don’t talk like me, they don’t act like me. And I bet you to say, they will never be me. I need them… with my knees, you know, get off my neck!
“Well, generally, I can’t do it. With these two people again. I can’t,” Williams continued. “The guardian and the judge. I need a new guardian. Because I need a new guardian and then, I’ll get out of guardian.”
Host Joy Behar then quickly took the show to a commercial break.
When The View returned, the Williams segment continued with the hosts speaking with Ginalisa Monterroso from Connect Care Advisory Group, which assists older patients in navigating health care situations. Monterroso has been working directly with Williams as her advocate; Williams has referred to her on the radio and today on The View as a friend.
Monterroso described how, in 2022, Williams’ guardianship was triggered by Wells Fargo, which noticed unusual activity with the Wendy Williams Show host’s bank account. Wells Fargo froze the account and initiated the court proceedings that led to Williams being placed under guardianship.
“Because it was a voluntary guardianship in the beginning, it was fine, because when they wanted to get a discussion with their finances and get things together,” Monterroso said by phone. “What ended up happening was Wendy didn’t realize that this person was going to take her whole entire life.”
Williams then returned to the phone and was coherent for the remainder of the interview, aside from a few slips in her language. Answering a question about her past struggles with addiction, Williams told the hosts that she is now mostly sober.
“Looking forward, my relationship [with drugs and alcohol] is fine,” she said. “And it’s wonderful because I’ve had my devices, and I have to tell you something: I’m easily going on with my life alcohol free.”
Williams then admitted that she did celebrate with alcohol on her birthday last year, which is July 18. The segment closed with a question about Williams’ iconic purple chair from her daytime talk show, and she had good news for her fans.
“When it comes out of storage, I’m keeping it with me for my life,” she said.
In a statement read on air from Morrissey, the longtime attorney pointed out that “the guardianship was created by a judge who declared [Williams] legally incapacitated after a diagnosis of frontal temporal dementia” and says that Williams “has not been kept from [her] family and that [Williams is] receiving excellent medical care.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Morrissey and Monterroso for comment.