Who Speaks for Wendy Williams?

TRAPPED IN A HIGH-END DEMENTIA FACILITY, THE FORMER TALK-SHOW HOST IS CAMPAIGNING FOR FREEDOM. IT MAY NOT MATTER.

- JESSICA BENNETT

On the last night of New York Fashion Week, in September, Wendy Williams, the former talk-show host and onetime gossip queen of New York, given permission to leave the locked floor of her assisted-living facility, where she is held against her will, was seated in the front row of designer LaQuan Smith's runway show, showing the world just how well she was doing.

She was polished up in long lashes, makeup perfectly set, dirty-blonde hair in smooth, loose waves. Smith had dressed her in a cropped black-and-white fur jacket over black shorts and fishnet stockings.

Williams, 61, had begun reappearing in public early this year after a long stretch of silence: In 2022, she was placed under court-appointed guardianship; then, last year, her guardian announced that the star had dementia, an assessment Williams vehemently denies. On her way into the show, she'd waved to fans who cheered and shouted that they loved her. Inside, she was surrounded by celebrities of her heyday: She'd been hip-hop-radio royalty in the '90s and early aughts and made her name talking shit about everyone in the scene. A few seats to her left was Busta Rhymes, who once tussled with her friend Charlamagne Tha God over an interview she had conducted. She chatted with Lil' Kim and asked for her number—Kim, who'd called her a “hating bitch” after Williams critiqued the rapper's nose job. The children of Diddy—Williams's longtime nemesis, who she'd frequently implied was closeted and who had once gotten her taken off air—were milling nearby.