Wendy Williams, Bruce Willis Dementia diagnoses put disease in the spotlight
Dr. Daniel Amen spoke to USA TODAY about frontotemporal dementia and what a diagnosis of this incurable disease might look like.
“Where is Wendy Williams?” Fans of the former talk show host who are still asking that question following the release of a two-part Lifetime documentary about Williams in February now have some answers.
Williams, 60, was spotted outside for the first time since her private legal and medical issues became public earlier this year.
A Newark, New Jersey-based company said last week that the former host of the long-running “The Wendy Williams Show,” who has been offline since 2022, stopped by to shop at the herbal supplements and holistic health products store.
Bolingo Balance owner Víctor Bowman posted photos with Williams and her 24-year-old son Kevin Hunter Jr. on Instagram and Facebook. “Wendy Williams, come to my store,” Bowman wrote in his Facebook caption. “Love, Queen.”
Williams’ son responded with an emoji-filled Instagram comment that seemed to express his wishes for his mother’s well-being: “🙏🏽📈🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽.”
This outing marked the first time Williams had been photographed in public since her team announced in a press release in February that she had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. A few days later, the TV personality’s deteriorating health was the subject of “Where is Wendy Williams?”
The docuseries follows Williams as she struggles with her health until she is eventually admitted to a treatment facility. In it, her family talks about her dementia diagnosis and advocates for changes to the guardianship that was granted to her in 2022.
In the document, Hunter claims his mother was diagnosed with alcohol-induced dementia: “They essentially said that the high alcohol consumption had started to affect her mental state and her brain,” he said.
According to Alzheimers.gov, frontotemporal dementia is characterized by changes “in thinking and behavior,” such as movement, speech, and emotions, caused by “a group of disorders that gradually damage the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.” The cause is “not yet fully understood.”
Wendy Williams was “under medical care around the clock,” her guardian said
In the document, Williams’ family also repeatedly criticized the court for appointing a guardian to oversee her finances in 2022, stating that they would have preferred to leave that position to a family member.
In February, the identity of Williams’ temporary guardian – Sabrina Morrissey, an attorney specializing in conservatorships – became public when she filed suit against A+E Network to block the release of “Where Is Wendy Williams?” Morrissey argued in her suit that Williams “was and is unable to agree to the terms” of the contract to film the documentary.
At the time of the lawsuit, Williams was “under 24-hour medical care and supervision,” Morrissey’s filing said.
Morrissey, who had seen the trailer for the unreleased documentary but not the entire project, claimed that “the documentary exploits Williams’ medical condition to portray her in a demeaning, degrading and false light.”
A lawyer for A+E Networks then argued that Morrissey only tried to stop production of the documentary after seeing how Williams’ conservatorship was portrayed in the trailer.
Lifetime, which is part of A&E Networks, continued to air “Where Is Wendy Williams?” on Feb. 24 and 25 after an appeals judge said banning it would be an “impermissible prior abridgement of free speech” and violated the First Amendment. The case is pending in New York.
In the fall of 2021, “Wendy” experienced several production delays and had to bring in a rotating cast of guest hosts to take over the show.
However, “Wendy” was canceled in 2022 after Williams was unable to perform due to illness due to her battle with the autoimmune disease Graves’ disease. Since then, Williams has kept a low profile.
Contributors: Brendan Morrow
