Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Where Is Wendy Williams?’ On Lifetime, A Docuseries About The Talk Show Host’s Decline And The Fight Over Her Care

Where Is Wendy Williams? is a four-and-a-half-hour docuseries, with Williams among its producers, that documents the decline in Williams’ health and the conservatorship that she was put under in 2022, but also talks to people on both sides of her case: The management team that is encouraging her desire to come back with a podcast and her family members that lament that they have no idea what’s going on with her since the conservatorship was implemented.

WHERE IS WENDY WILLIAMS?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: :”New York City, August, 2022.” We see scenes from Wendy Williams’ sprawling apartment. Then the former talk show host gingerly walks into the room where cameras are set up for an interview.

The Gist: The docuseries started out with Williams’ desire to document her health journey, where she’s dealing with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition, and lymphedema, which has limited her ability to walk. Despite those difficulties, and despite the financial — and later health — conservatorship that was implemented for her by the New York Supreme Court, she was determined to make a comeback and start a podcast that was supposed to display the no-holds-barred style that made The Wendy Williams Show a popular daytime watch for 13 years.

But what the filmmakers ended up documenting was a ton of erratic behavior, including irritability and memory loss, a stint in a “wellness center” that may or may not have been related to her drinking, and conflicts between her management and family. What they didn’t realize at the time was what was just revealed this past week: She was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2023.

In the first two hours of the docuseries, we see her mostly in her apartment with her manager, Will Selby, whom she made her manager after her 2020 divorce from her husband Kevin Hunter. When she’s out of her apartment, she’s either in a wheelchair or being led by someone due to her lymphedema, and paparazzi are always around. Selby and those on her team of managers and handlers are confident that she can make the comeback she wants to make, but we mostly see Williams cursing at them, calling them names, and generally acting like a child. She displays some moments where she’s the sharp commentator on pop culture she used to be, but those moments are few and far between.

The filmmakers also speak to Williams’ son, Kevin Hunter, Jr. (also an executive producer), as well as pretty much everyone from her family, most prominently her niece Alex Finnie and nephew Travis Finnie. They have seen the decline in her mental capacities, and they don’t think her management, or anyone in New York, has her best interest at heart. But when they brought her down to Miami, where they live, in 2021 after a health scare, Kevin Jr.’s spending patterns caused Wells Fargo to freeze Williams’ accounts and petition the court for that conservatorship.

In some heartbreaking scenes in the second hour, we see Williams visit her hometown of Asbury Park, NJ and not remember the location of the house where she grew up; then she and her publicist go out to get a new vape pen at a shop near where her talk show’s studios were, and she kept insisting to her driver that they were at the wrong store.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s hard to think of a documentary or docuseries that’s given us such an intimate look at a celebrity who is so obviously in declining health. But the intimacy of Where Is Wendy Williams? reminds us of documentaries like Gilbert or Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work.

Our Take: It was tough to watch Where Is Wendy Williams?, mainly because it was tough to see Williams in such obvious decline. Whether you were a fan of her and her talk show or not, the Wendy Williams you were used to seeing was a sharp, intelligent and vivacious personality. The Wendy Williams in this documentary is struggling to recapture that spirit in the face of illnesses she knows she has, like the Graves’ disease and lymphedema, and the ones she doesn’t, like the aphasia and FTD.

But what’s so frustrating about the documentary is that it feels like the people who are around her now, all of whom are paid to be around her, seem to be in denial about her obvious decline. Selby, who seems to treat Williams more like he’s her caretaker instead of her manager, chalks her outbursts up to her just being her usual forthright self, when it’s obvious to the filmmakers who are spending time with her that there’s something more going on. Wendy berates her publicist about her weight and screams at her to keep going back into the smoke shop for the “right” vape pen, and all the publicist says is, “I’ve got a pretty thick skin.”

Because Williams is among the show’s producers, the filmmakers have to tread lightly around this, not directly challenging the people on her payroll about what they’re seeing with regards to her health. It’s not like Selby is completely in denial; he continues to try to keep Williams away from alcohol whenever possible, following her son’s request, but he seems to be losing that battle.

In the meantime, Kevin Jr., as well as Alex and Travis, know there’s something wrong. None of them have had much in-person contact with Williams since the conservatorship was implemented. The filmmakers paint them in a largely sympathetic light, which is interesting given who’s behind the docuseries. But there seems to be information missing here; why exactly has Williams been kept away — either by her choice or someone else’s — from her son, whom she discusses with such love whenever he’s brought up? Is it purely because of the financial decisions he made when she was in his care? Or is something else going on that we’re not being made privy to?

It’s obvious that, in the mental state Williams exhibits in the documentary, she’d be better off in the care of her family and not in the care of people she pays who are yessing her and in denial about her decline. But that may not be what Williams herself wants, as she insists that, at least in 2022, she’s ready to come back into the spotlight. As with most of what’s going on in Williams’ case, motivations and who’s on what side are murkily explained. Even the conservatorship isn’t fully explained; did the bank really take it upon themselves to try to protect Williams’ money or was someone else behind it?

Is this docuseries exploitative of its subject? If we didn’t know that Williams herself, as well as Selby and the rest of her “team”, was producing the docuseries, we would definitely be leaning in that direction. Given the direction the documentary, and Williams’ health, has gone since she started filming about a year-and-a-half ago, however, we’re not sure what Williams’ motivation was to see this through. Was it to show just where she is in her health battle? Was it to give her one last opportunity to be in the spotlight before she fades from public view? Or does she still think she’s going to be a public figure in some capacity, despite her health issues?

It’s all still very confusing — especially after her guardian sued to block the airing of the series — and seeing Williams in the state she’s in is really sad. But it’s also a fascinating look at a celebrity who craved the spotlight trying to stay in it despite the fact that every indication is being given that her time in that spotlight has come to an end.

Sex and Skin: None, though the thinner-than-ever Williams seems to take strange joy in the fact that she now has a thigh gap.

Parting Shot: Selby admits that he doesn’t really want to find out about the state of Williams’ mental health because “I don’t want to know.”

Sleeper Star: Kevin Hunter, Jr., as well as his cousins, Alex and Travis Finnie, feel like they’re the most levelheaded people who are interviewed. They’re the adults in the room, despite the fact that they’re the youngest ones spoken to by the filmmakers. DJ Boof, who was the DJ on her talk show for most of its run until he decided to leave due to the decline in her health, also gave a more realistic view of her condition, especially when she disastrously hosted her show from her apartment during the pandemic.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing specific, just the overall feeling that the filmmakers needed to challenge the members of Williams’ team more. Like we said above, we understood why they couldn’t.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Where Is Wendy Williams? is really hard to watch, but if you are at all interested in what’s been going on in her life in the last few years, or have been following the confusing drama around her care, this is a must watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.