Wendy Williams wants to be free.
The former media personality and Wendy Williams Show host joined forces with her ex-husband to end her longstanding guardianship, which has gone on since May 2022.
Williams and Kevin Hunter, who she was married to for 21 years until 2020, filed a $250 million federal lawsuit on Tuesday in New York. Hunter, who also filed a motion to proceed on behalf of Williams, said that the guardianship “has become a weapon, not a shield.”
The lawsuit targets Sabrina Morrissey, Williams’ legal guardian; Wells Fargo bank, who first flagged Williams’ alleged mental incapacity; her one-time financial advisor Lori Schiller; her ex-manager Bernie Young; and several other defendants.
The lawsuit uses Williams’ married name and suggests “Ms. Hunter” is “being abused, neglected, and defrauded under the care of court-appointed guardians.”
It adds: “The guardianship … serves no therapeutic purpose, no protective function. It is punishment—pure and simple.”
The lawsuit aims to charge the defendants on 22 counts, including violation of free speech and access to courts, unlawful isolation, violation of Americans with Disabilities Act, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, professional malpractice, and defamation.
The suit also calls for a jury trial and seeks the massive $250 million sum because Williams has lost “approximately $20 million per year in earnings, her $80 million estate, her $4 million condominium, personal goods in excess of $10 million, and severe reputational harm.”
None of the major players, including Morrissey, Schiller, or Young, have made public comments about the lawsuit.
News of Williams’ conservatorship made headlines in March when she dropped a note saying “Help! Wendy!” from the Manhattan facility she has resided in since being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. After being rushed to the hospital, she began to expose the downsides of her living environment, which she called a “prison.”
Williams, 60, grew emotional when telling multiple reporters in March that she rarely leaves the 5th floor of her facility, Coterie, and almost never goes outside. She also said she could not see visitors, make phone calls, or access the internet.
“Currently, Ms. Hunter is being confined against her will at one of Coterie’s assisted living facilities with restricted access to her own phone and meaningful contact with her friends and family,” this week’s lawsuit alleges.
Morrissey, who was granted the legal right to make decisions for Williams, has previously denied Williams’ claims of mistreatment. Her lawyer said in March that the media’s coverage of the celebrity’s experience was “untrue, inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading.”
Williams willingly entered the guardianship in 2022 after her bank claimed that she was incapacitated, describing her as a “victim of undue influence and financial exploitation.” At the time, her show abruptly ended after 14 years.
Her ex, Hunter, disagrees. He said that Williams is competent to make her own decisions but that the guardianship is keeping her in “fraudulent bondage.”
The ex-lovebirds split in 2020, leaving Williams to “navigate complex financial and medical matters without Mr. Hunter’s experienced oversight,” according to the lawsuit. In several ways, it adds, Williams was “coerced” into the conservatorship “under immense financial duress and emotional strain.”
The post Wendy Williams and Ex Make Attempt to End Guardianship appeared first on The Daily Beast.
