The Wendy Williams documentary would not have come out — or even been filmed — if revelations about the former talk show host’s dementia had come before filming, producers say.
“Where is Wendy Williams?,” which premiered on Lifetime on Saturday, follows Williams’s life after her successful daytime talk show. Williams stepped away from “The Wendy Williams Show” in 2021 due to her Graves’ disease diagnosis and alcohol abuse issues.
During the documentary’s filming between August 2022 and April 2023 in Williams’ New York City apartment, filmmakers were increasingly concerned about her health and the actions of those tasked with keeping her safe, Mark Ford, a producer on the documentary, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Like, Wendy would be left alone without food, completely on her own in that apartment with stairs that she could easily fall down,” Ford told THR. “There was no one there 24/7.”
Ford told the publication that when they were filming, they initially believed the narrative would follow Williams sobering up and producing a podcast. However, the storyline was “derailed because of what we now know was the state of Wendy’s dementia,” Ford said.
In 2023, Williams was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a form of cognitive decline that can cause memory loss and personality changes, her care team announced on Thursday.
The documentary touches on Williams’ diagnosis when her son Kevin Hunter Jr. tells cameras that she has “alcohol-induced” dementia, USA Today reported.
“But, of course, if we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would’ve rolled a camera,” Ford told THR.
Representatives for Williams’ care team, A+E Television Networks, manager Will Selby, and a lawyer for her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.
On Friday, a New York court ruled that the documentary could premiere as scheduled on Saturday after Morrissey sued A+E Television Networks to block it from airing, CNN reported.
Ford told THR he was pleased with the court ruling.
“Ultimately, it’s a First Amendment issue,” Ford said. “Nobody should have the power to quash Wendy’s voice and her family’s voice.”
