Former talk show host Wendy Williams swears she doesn’t have frontotemporal dementia, but her guardian wants her to prove it.
via: People
Sabrina Morrissey requested a “new medical evaluation" in a court filing hours after the former talk show host, 60, denied that she was “incapacitated” during an appearance on The Breakfast Club.
“I don’t have frontotemporal dementia…it’s disgusting,” Williams said on the radio program on Feb. 5. “That’s a very rare thing for anybody to have.”
“I’m not incapacitated,” she later added. “I am not a baby.”
The television personality also spoke out against Morrissey’s lawsuit against A&E Television Networks, Lifetime Entertainment and other affiliates following the airing of the docuseries, Where Is Wendy Williams?. In the papers filed on Feb. 20, 2024, Morrissey slammed the network's documentary, claiming that it "shamelessly exploits [Williams] and portrays her in an extremely demeaning and undignified manner."
"This case arises from the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit [Williams]," the filing alleged in part, referencing Williams’ frontotemporal dementia diagnosis.
A&E later filed a counterclaim, denying the allegations.
“I only watched [the docuseries] once and I will never watch again in life,” William said on the radio program.
“It was disgusting, and by the way, I watched it with my guardianship person,” she added. “Yes, we watched that together. That was the first time this guardianship person was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and she was writing stuff down. I was looking like, ‘Oh my god,’ do you know what I'm saying? What happened with this?"
Despite the lawsuit, Williams insisted she was still interested in working with Lifetime in the future.
“I've worked with Lifetime several times,” she explained. “Enough that I would love to do something with Lifetime again. They are good people to me and I am good people to them."
Following her interview on The Breakfast Club, Morrissey shared her concerns about Williams’ statements in the new court filing. (Williams also stated she wasn’t “incapacitated” on The Don Lemon Show on Jan. 16 and insisted she wasn’t cognitively impaired during another appearance on The Breakfast Club the same day.)
“In these statements, [Williams] has indicated that, in her opinion, she is not suffering from dementia and is not incapacitated,” the filing stated. “We are writing this letter today because, during a radio interview this morning, [Williams] discussed the A&E matter at some length and appeared to indicate that she does not want to proceed with the action.”
Morrissey claimed she brought the lawsuit against A&E to “recover substantial monetary damages for the benefit of [Williams], which could be used to help pay for [her] significant healthcare needs going forward.”
The guardian alleged the evidence of Williams’ health status includes a “formal diagnosis” by doctors at Weill Cornell Medical Center that Williams suffers from frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA) as well as a judicial finding that states Williams is “legally incapacitated.”
FTD is “an umbrella term for a group of brain diseases that mainly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain,” while PPA is “is a rare nervous system syndrome that affects the ability to communicate,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
The filing noted that these conditions will “only get worse and there is no cure.”
Morrissey requested that Williams have “a new medical evaluation that will involve comprehensive neurological and psychological testing by a specialist in the field” following her public denial of her medical conditions.
“The issue of whether [Williams] has the capacity to assess what is in her own best interests deserves renewed careful consideration by qualified experts, and should not be left to careless speculation in tabloids, radio, or on the Internet,” the filing stated.
She explained that she has “no interest” in pursuing further litigation if “in the extremely unlikely event that the new medical examination finds that [Williams] somehow now has the mental capacity to direct” the lawsuit against A&E.
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