Former talk show host Wendy Williams was taken from the New York City assisted living facility where she’s been staying to a wellness check after reportedly dropping a note out the window pleading for help.
The 60-year-old celebrity dropped a note from her window that said, “Help! Wendy!!” according to The New York Post. The New York Police Department reportedly visited Williams on Monday morning “to determine if, as Wendy says, she’s effectively being held prisoner,” per TMZ. She was transported to Lenox Hill Hospital and spent time with a psychiatrist there.
A source told the outlet that Williams aced the capacity test, getting all ten questions correct.
This latest incident comes after the celeb has been making headlines for months as she fights to be freed from a legal guardianship involving both her health and finances that’s been in place since 2022. Williams has been trying to publicize the case, insisting that the guardianship is unnecessary.
“I am not cognitively impaired but I feel like I am in prison,” Williams said after calling into the radio show The Breakfast Club in January. “I’m in this place with people who are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s. …. These people, there’s something wrong with these people here on this floor. I am clearly not.”
She continued, “Listen, this system is broken, this system that I am in. This system has falsified a lot. For the last three years, I have been caught up in the system.”
In court filings, Williams’ guardian has claimed she “is cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated.” But Williams told TMZ founder Harvey Levin she feels “fantastic” and is “not incapacitated.” She also refuted the diagnosis of progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), mentioning how these diseases never improve, but her mental state has been improving.
The public has taken more interest in the case since the airing of the documentary “TMZ Presents: Saving Wendy,” which detailed Williams living in a strict facility where she claims not to have access to the internet, incoming phone calls, or even fresh air.
Williams hosted “The Wendy Williams Show” from 2008 until 2021. She stepped down from hosting due to medical issues related to lymphedema and Graves’ disease.
