By Wonderwall.com Editors
3:00am PST, Feb 5, 2024
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"At the peak of her career, she was gone," a voiceover says in the new trailer for Lifetime's upcoming documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?"
The two-part program, which debuts on Feb. 24, 2024, offers an explosive inside look at the TV host's disappearance from "The Wendy Williams Show" after 12 years, revealing new details about her physical and mental health struggles, her alcoholism and her financial devastation.
"I have no money," she says through tears at one point in the new trailer. "I'm going to tell you something. If it happens to me, it could happen to you."
Elsewhere, the heart-wrenching footage shows members of Wendy's inner circle expressing concern about her memory loss, her heavy drinking and her financial guardianship.
It's been a tumultuous few years for the star, who was reportedly earning $10 million a year before her show was officially canceled in 2022 following multiple health-related hiatuses. Since then, she's stepped away from the spotlight almost entirely. As of Feb. 2, she hadn't been photographed in public for a full year, according to E! News.
The documentary, which Wendy executive-produced, aims to shed new light on what happened.
Keep reading for more details …
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"Since I was 6 years old, all I wanted was to be famous," Wendy Williams says in a voiceover near the beginning of the trailer.
From there, viewers see a montage of career milestones, including adulation from fans and cheers as she accepts a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"All I know is how to be famous," Wendy admits in a radio interview.
Footage that shows her struggling to walk without assistance follows.
"I want to be back on television," she then tells her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., 22.
"My mom has done a great job making it seem like everything is OK always, but in reality there's something wrong going on," he says in one of many poignant moments.
It was, of course, clear to many that Wendy was struggling long before she lost the show. She's struggled with the autoimmune condition Graves' disease for years and tested positive for COVID-19 repeatedly during and after 2020. In the show's final season, she was essentially replaced by guest hosts — including Sherri Shepherd, who was ultimately given Wendy's daytime slot and format.
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Questions about Wendy Williams' mental health also surfaced in the latter years of her show, particularly in 2020 when she filmed from home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The trailer hints at that aspect of her struggles in a scene showing a producer asking if Wendy — seen here with her son, Kevin Hunter Jr. — has "seen a neurologist."
She seems to take the question as a euphemism.
"To find out if I'm crazy? Mhmm," she replies.
"I feel like the guardian has not done a good job at protecting my mom," Kevin says at one point, referencing the financial guardianship she was placed under in 2022.
"My mom, she always talks about how she wants to work, but I feel as though she's worked enough," he later says. "She has people around her that are 'yes people' and allowing this to continue."
Kevin has previously spoken to the press about his concerns regarding the guardian and others in his mom's inner circle. In June 2023, he told The Sun that he believed his mother was abusing alcohol and that he feared for her life. He added at the time that he worried the people who'd been "hired" to protect her were exploiting her to keep the money coming in.
In the new trailer, someone close to Wendy is shown confronting her about a bottle of vodka as she lies in bed.
"Did you drink this whole thing today?" he asks.
"Keep the bottle there!" she tells him.
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Wendy Williams' financial problems, meanwhile, began before she lost her show. They stem back to her divorce from Kevin Hunter after 22 years of marriage. The divorce was finalized in 2020.
Even as she sought treatment for alcoholism and was forced off her show, Kevin's name surfaced in headlines claiming he was asking for more alimony. (She said in an interview with Howard Stern that they had no prenup. Wendy paid Kevin spousal support following their 2019 split until at least 2022, according to BET.)
Fast forward to the trailer for the new Lifetime doc, which shows the distraught star speaking candidly about her precarious financial situation.
The clip also shows relatives opening up about various times they've tried to intervene and respond when Wendy has "cried for help."
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"I love being famous," Wendy Williams says in the clip. "But family is everything. Everything."
Wendy's first hiatus from "The Wendy Williams Show" came in March 2018, according to People magazine. She then spent more than a month away in 2019 when she fractured her shoulder. In May 2020, she stepped away again while trying to manage symptoms related to her Graves' disease and hyperthyroidism.
She has since admitted she spent some of that time in treatment for alcoholism.
"Where Is Wendy Williams" airs on Lifetime on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.
