The place Is Wendy Williams? govt producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson opened up about their issues for Wendy Williams’ well being whereas they had been filming the Lifetime documentary.
Throughout an awards consideration panel in Los Angeles, Ford and Hanson mentioned they had been “nervous” about Williams’ circumstances throughout manufacturing, by way of Individuals. They observed that she had been dwelling alone, with out meals in her fridge, and tried to get in contact along with her household.
“The deeper we bought into it, we didn’t wish to let go of Wendy till we bought her again in contact along with her household,” Ford mentioned. “As a result of we felt that at a sure level that’s who’s going to be there for her to look after her.”
Towards the tip of manufacturing on the doc, Ford recalled the producers had been getting “very, very nervous” and telling her supervisor, who was the one different particular person coming into her condo, that one thing wanted to be executed to assist her.
“That is getting very dire and scary,” he added. “And since she was below a guardianship, her household couldn’t simply fly up and hang around and resolve to become involved in her medical care. They had been faraway from that course of by the courts so they might face authorized ramifications in the event that they tried to get too concerned.”
Sabrina Morrissey grew to become Williams’ court-appointed guardian in 2022 after Wells Fargo claimed that she was an “incapacitated particular person” and a “sufferer of undue affect and monetary exploitation.” On the time, the previous discuss present host contested the guardian appointment, noting that her well being had improved and he or she was “completely” of sound thoughts following therapy for Graves’ illness and thyroid points. Later, it was revealed that her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., was chargeable for the monetary exploitation.
Throughout the panel dialog, Ford mentioned that’s when the documentary started taking a flip and making an attempt to “expose what these guardianships are like” when the household just isn’t concerned. Hanson added that it felt “incomprehensible” that her son didn’t know the place she was and couldn’t name her, though he had beforehand tried serving to “his mom with all of her habit points.”
“I simply assume, in the long run, you actually see what occurs when a guardian has full management and the household is lower out and so they don’t understand how she’s being handled medically,” Hanson defined. “They usually don’t know what’s occurred along with her funds.”
Ford mentioned, “It’s a really difficult course of for [her family]. However I feel you might see within the movie, they’re a stunning group of people that care about their sister, daughter, mom, and need one of the best for her, and who higher to be concerned in her care than these individuals, not a stranger.”
Morrissey tried to maintain the documentary from airing by submitting a lawsuit towards Lifetime‘s dad or mum firm A+E Networks, citing that the contract brokered to shoot the challenge wasn’t legitimate as a result of Williams had neither the authorized nor psychological capability to authorize her participation. Nonetheless, the previous Wendy Williams Present host was an govt producer on the challenge alongside Hunter Jr. and her jeweler-turned-manager, William Selby.
The guardian’s grievance claimed that the four-and-a-half-hour documentary was a “blatant exploitation of a susceptible lady with a critical medical situation who’s beloved by hundreds of thousands inside and outdoors of the African American group.” Morrissey’s short-term restraining order was granted earlier than being reversed by a better courtroom for violating the community’s First Modification rights.
When the courtroom information had been unsealed in March, they indicated that Williams’ guardian, who allegedly wouldn’t return the producers’ calls all through manufacturing, solely fought to maintain the documentary from airing after she noticed the trailer for the movie on Feb. 2. The almost four-minute take a look at The place Is Wendy Williams? made it clear Morrissey wouldn’t be portrayed positively.
“Solely after seeing the documentary’s trailer and realizing her position in Ms. [Williams’] life could also be criticized did Ms. Morrissey enlist the courts to unconstitutionally silence that criticism,” A+E Networks legal professional Rachel Strom wrote on the time.
Days earlier than the challenge aired, information broke that Williams had been identified with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, along with her Graves’ illness and lymphedema, which is the buildup of fluid in gentle physique tissues.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter following the doc’s launch, Ford mentioned that “if we had identified that Wendy had dementia going into it, nobody would’ve rolled a digicam,” including that “it bought to some extent the place we had been extra nervous about what would occur to Wendy if we stopped filming than if we continued.”