Wendy Williams ended up locked in the memory unit of the assisted living facility she's called home for 8 months ... but apparently not because of her dementia diagnosis -- it's because she got drunk in the building's restaurant.
via: Daily Mail
Details about how the 60-year-old former chat show host - who was seen showing off a fresh new look in Miami on Sunday - came to have so little freedom of movement at her assisted-living facility recently came to light.
Sources claimed to TMZ on Monday that she had been moved to a more restrictive memory unit at the facility after she allegedly got drunk at a restaurant on the premises.
DailyMail.com has attempted to reach Williams' guardian for comment.
Wendy had previously said she had only been allowed out of her assisted-facility twice in the past 30 days for dentist appointments.
TMZ had reported on the circumstances in which Wendy was allegedly moved to a more restrictive part of her assisted-living facility, which may have contributed to her lack of trips outside of the building.
According to an employee who is described as having had many interactions with Wendy since her arrival, she initially was given a room on the building's third floor, where residents are allowed to come and go as they please.
However, things went south early on in her tenure when she went up to the restaurant and bar located on the facility's top floor for an extended lunch.
According to the employee, Wendy ordered several alcoholic drinks and was noticeably drunk for a significant amount of time.
The facility supervisors allegedly learned of the drunken escapade and were upset that she was served, as she has reportedly had issues with problem drinking in the past.
In response to the drunken lunch, Wendy was allegedly relocated to a new room on the memory unit on the facility's fifth floor.
Because many of the occupants there suffer from dementia and other memory issues, they aren't able to use the elevator on their own.
The new location meant Wendy was prohibited from going up to the restaurant and drinking, though it's unclear if she is not supposed to leave the floor at all or if she can venture out with someone supervising.
However, there was a hiccup with the reassignment, as the memory unit didn't have any open rooms, so Wendy was allegedly forced to stay in her third-floor room while employees guarded the door and prevented her from leaving.
According to the insider, employees at the facility lied to the talk show host and told her that the restaurant was closed for renovations, despite it apparently being open the entire time.
After a few days a room reportedly opened up and she was able to be moved to the fifth floor, where she has remained ever since.
The confinement and alleged falsehoods fed to Wendy are concerning, as the employee claims that her memory is not suffering.
'Wendy doesn't have good and bad days. She's the same all the time,' they claimed to TMZ.
'You can tell her something today and two weeks later she'll remember it. Her memory is fine.'
On Wednesday, Wendy signed an affidavit in which she asked the judge overseeing her guardianship case to end the arrangement, TMZ reported.
In the legally binding document, Williams reportedly said she has 'regained capacity' to function independently, and she said she no longer requires a guardian to oversee her.
She has a guardianship overseen by Sabrina Morrissey, which was instituted in 2022.
She still has several steps ahead of her before she can end the guardianship, however, and the judge will ultimately need to be swayed by her if she hopes to regain her freedom.
In order to do that, Williams will next attempt to prove that she does not have frontotemporal dementia, contrary to how doctors had previously diagnosed her.
She averred in her affidavit that she was not suffering from the neurological condition, and sources told TMZ that she will be seeing a doctor on Tuesday for a new evaluation to hopefully confirm as much.
Notably, frontotemporal dementia is a permanent and progressive condition, so the former Wendy Williams Show host hopes that her apparent improvement in functioning will indicate that she couldn't be suffering from the disease.
Williams recently hired a new attorney to help her end the guardianship, and they were responsible for selecting the new doctor she will be seeing.
According to the publications sources, her attorney plans to file an Emergency Order to Show Cause the day after the testing, which should force the judge to weigh in on ending the guardianship.
She's hoping the judge will agree and end things then and there, but if they deny the request and keep the guardianship as its currently constituted, Williams will allegedly request that her case go before a jury who can determine if she's able to care for herself and run her own finances without the need of a guardian figure.
Williams recently delved into the circumstances that she believes led to her being placed under a guardianship during a recent chat with TMZ.
In an appearance on its 2 Angry Men podcast, she revealed that she planned to travel down to Miami over the weekend — where several of her family members live — to celebrate her father's 94th birthday.
The trip represents the first time in months she'll be able to spend time with family, but it will also mark a reunion with her son Kevin Hunter Jr.
Williams had previously revealed that her guardianship was kicked off after her bank, Wells Fargo, reported that several large withdrawals had been made from her account, seemingly without her authorization.
She has claimed that her son Kevin and others made the withdrawals, though it's unclear if she thinks he was working with others to take her money.
'My son, he overstepped his boundaries,' Williams claimed in a video interview filmed from her window for the publication's new documentary Saving Wendy. 'He was inappropriately using my money without telling me crap about it.'
She said the alleged action caused the bank to freeze her account, which stopped any potential stealing, but it also left her without any access to her money.
When asked who was 'influencing' her financially, Williams began to cry and said, 'My son is a really good person.
'But at this point, he is a horrible person to me,' she continued.
Williams went on to allege that 'other people' might have been influencing her son and spending time with him at her apartment in Miami.
She mentioned a fishy transaction in which Kevin had allegedly wanted to rent a boat for around $1,500, before alleged renting on for $130,000, according to Wells Fargo, which he allegedly blamed on the bank, though his mother didn't buy that explanation.
According to documents obtained by TMZ, the judge overseeing Williams case said in September 2024 that, 'While Mr. Hunter, [her son, Kevin] apologized for past mistakes and inappropriate behavior, the court is not convinced that he can keep her safe and wouldn't willingly or unwittingly expose her to financial exploitation.'
Williams noted that she would be seeing her son at her father's birthday — assuming he shows up.
'I will see him at a particular place, at a particular location. I don't want to say too much,' she said, though she didn't care to say more about their current relationship.
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