Guardian of Wendy Williams Criticizes A&E Networks in Latest Complaint | Entertainment

Wendy Williams' guardian has filed a brand new criticism in opposition to Lifetime's father or mother firm, A&E Television Networks, Lifetime Entertainment Services, EOne Productions, Creature Films and its government producer Mark Ford.

The guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed the swimsuit in New York Supreme Court on Monday, Sept. 16, roughly seven months after the premiere of Lifetime's stunning documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, which explores Williams' life underneath her guardianship. It aired on Feb. 24 and 25 after Morrissey unsuccessfully tried to halt the premiere date in courtroom.

“As is patently obvious from the very first few minutes of the Program itself, W.W.H. was highly vulnerable and clearly incapable of consenting to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited,” the 75-page criticism alleges. “When the Guardian discovered that Defendants’ true intentions were to portray W.W.H. in a highly demeaning and embarrassing manner, she immediately sought to protect and to preserve her dignity. But the defendants fought to move ahead… without a valid contract and released without the Guardian's consent.”

Since May 2022, the previous Wendy Williams Show host, 60, has been residing underneath a authorized court-ordered guardianship that oversees each her funds and well being. And for a 12 months and 4 months, she's been residing in an unknown facility to handle cognitive points after being identified with main progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in May 2023.

In a press release on Feb, 2024, her care group at Weill Cornell Medical Center revealed her diagnoses publicly and stated that Williams acquired quite a few exams after “she began to lose words, act erratically at times and have difficulty understanding financial transactions.” 

In the brand new submitting Morrissey — together with famed civil rights litigator Roberta Kaplan (who received a $83.3 million jury verdict in her illustration of E. Jean Carroll in opposition to former President Donald Trump and who efficiently argued United States v. Windsor, which required the federal authorities to acknowledge same-sex marriage) and her accomplice Tim Martin of Kaplan Martin LLP have taken on Wendy’s case — declare the community and defendants took benefit of Williams and will pay her for her medical care and supervision for the remainder of her life.

“Not surprisingly, the public reacted with disgust and revulsion at Defendants’ blatant and vicious exploitation of W.W.H,” the criticism continues. “By willfully taking advantage of a severely impaired, incapacitated person, Defendants have made millions on W.W.H.’s back, while W.W.H. has received a paltry $82,000” from the documentary.

“This case arises from the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit W.W.H., an acclaimed African-American entertainer who, tragically, suffers from dementia and, as a result, has become cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and legally incapacitated,” the criticism provides. “Eager to sensationalize and profit from W.W.H.’s cognitive and physical decline, Defendants took advantage of W.W.H in the cruelest, most obscene way possible for their own financial gain, in a manner that truly shocks the conscience.”

It additional alleges that the “defendants not only deliberately destroyed” Williams' “credibility and image,” however did so for their very own monetary acquire. It additionally notes that Williams was the “laughingstock and drunkard implicitly responsible for her own continued suffering” and quite a few pictures of her in a wheelchair together with her legs unfold have been dredged up everywhere in the Internet, whereas additionally displaying her on digital camera with an almost bald head — one thing she would have “never, ever consented and allowed.”

PEOPLE reached out to Lifetime Entertainment Services, EOne Productions, A&E Television Networks, Ford, Selby and Morrissey’s legal professional for remark.

“As our complaint shows in painful and excruciating detail, A&E, Lifetime and Mark Ford viciously and shamelessly exploited Wendy Williams for their own profit while she was obviously incapacitated and suffering from dementia,” Kaplan Martin LLP and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, attorneys for Wendy Williams’ guardian alleged in a statement to PEOPLE. “Their behavior truly shocks the conscience, and they should not be permitted to profit from her suffering. We are proud to represent her guardian in holding them accountable.”

When the Lifetime documentary crew started filming in August 2022, they declare it got down to observe Williams’ comeback as she ready to launch a brand new podcast. But the movie developed into one thing solely completely different, because the crew captured Williams (who's listed as an government producer on the venture) in the throes of alcohol habit and struggles with well being points together with Graves’ illness, an autoimmune dysfunction that may trigger bulging eyes, and lymphedema, a situation that causes swelling in her ft.

The four-part docuseries additionally captured her psychological well being decline, reminiscence points and her lack of ability to successfully talk. But because the criticism alleges, after Morrissey was appointed by the courtroom, Will Selby, a social media character and jeweler, turned Williams' supervisor and allegedly defined he would have full artistic management over this system. (Selby could not be reached for remark.)

“When the Guardian asked Mr. Selby what he meant by ‘full creative control,' he is claimed to have said, ‘If I do not want it in the film, they will take it out.'” The swimsuit additionally alleges that government producer Mark Ford and his crew have been conscious of “Williams severe and incapacitating cognitive and physical impairments” and insisted on “filming her anyway.”

“There was a guardianship in place the entire time we were filming with Wendy that was court appointed to be overseeing her finances and her medical care,” Ford informed PEOPLE in Feb. 2024. “So I think the larger question here is about what can happen to someone under a legal guardianship if the family is separated from them and there isn't somebody there on a daily basis checking in on their well-being.”

He continued: “Wendy's attorneys and the guardianship attorneys were consulted and signed off on the project. Once we started seeing the truth of the situation, we couldn't ignore it. And the film had to go in the direction of the truth.”

However, the brand new swimsuit claims that Williams' signature on January 25, 2023 would not seem like real and there's no proof she signed their contract. “In all events, W.W.H. was incapacitated and unable to consent at the time the Contract or its amendments were executed, even if she had signed it (which she did not),” it learn.

The criticism additionally alleges that guardian Morrissey was not concerned in this system or the contract and was not proven a replica of the contract till months after it was purportedly executed. Morrissey additionally claims that the defendants continued to succeed in Williams after filming wrapped, however she refused to permit additional exploitation.

“Not before, but after filming began, Defendant EOne, with the assistance and input of Defendants Ford, Creature Films, and A&E, eventually drafted a one-sided “on-camera talent agreement” (“the Contract”) in an try to legitimize their unsavory and exploitative venture,” the complaint alleges. “This settlement was submitted after W.W.H. had already been filmed by Defendants whereas she was clearly matted, not mentally current, and confused. No one who witnessed W.W.H. in these circumstances might presumably have believed that she was succesful of consenting to an settlement to movie, or to the filming itself.”

The criticism additional alleges that the defendants falsely insisted to the press that Williams had “executive produced” the doc. The criticism claims that Williams had by no means noticed the trailer or sequence earlier than it aired, or ever endorsed them.

“Indeed, none of the Defendants ever gained the Guardian’s consent for W.W.H.’s participation in the film, and there was no way W.W.H. could have consented,” the criticism continued. “Pursuant to the orders issued by the Court in the Guardianship Proceedings, the Guardian was not permitted to discuss W.W.H. with Defendants. The Guardian explained this to Mr. Selby. The Guardian also told Mr. Selby that she, and perhaps even the Justice in the Guardianship Proceeding, would need to see and approve the final product before it could air.”

Furthermore, the criticism says that Morrissey mentioned with EOne's in-house attorneys that no footage of Williams could be launched until an settlement may very well be reached and authorized, which was presupposed to painting Williams in a optimistic mild. The swimsuit accommodates pictures that have been apparently despatched to the guardian on set, that present Williams professionally made up, well-dressed and showing completely happy.

“No one viewing these photographs could have possibly imagined what Mr. Ford and his crew were really planning or what the finished product would depict. Had the Guardian known that Mr. Ford and his crew were taunting, goading, and tormenting W.W.H., she would have sought to stop filming immediately,” the swimsuit alleged. It additionally states that no consent was ever given by Morrissey for Williams to journey to California for filming or to movie with different members of her household, besides her father.

Showrunner Erica Hansen beforehand informed PEOPLE that: “We had no idea that [Wendy] had dementia when we started filming [in August 2022], or we wouldn't have filmed,” she stated. “I think the documentary really illustrates our journey of trying to understand what was happening. It sheds light on that period of time in Wendy's life where she was under care of a guardianship and living a very isolated life in New York, in that apartment.”

Back in January 2022, Williams’s household, together with her son Kevin Hunter, Jr., 24, with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, 51 got here underneath fireplace on-line when Wells Fargo froze the star’s accounts after her monetary adviser on the time alleged that she was of “unsound mind,” in keeping with Williams’ courtroom filings. ”

The financial institution efficiently petitioned a New York courtroom to have Williams positioned underneath non permanent monetary guardianship, reportedly as a result of she was in danger of monetary exploitation because of cognitive points. “Wells Fargo employees had documented a pattern of unusual and disturbing events concerning W.W.H.’s welfare and finances which led them to fear that she had already been taken advantage of and would be the subject of financial abuse in the future,” the brand new criticism says. Eventually, Morrissey was awarded a everlasting guardianship.

Williams’ son got here underneath scrutiny when reviews of a big sum of cash taken out of her account which raised flags on the financial institution. A spokesperson for the monetary providers firm has since shared with PEOPLE: “This matter was conducted under seal. Any claims against Wells Fargo have been dismissed.”

When it involves Williams’ son, he spoke out in the documentary vehemently denying allegations of exploiting her about the rumors in opposition to him. Kevin shared that his mother has at all times spent giant quantities because of her extravagant life-style and that for the time she was in his care in Florida, she signed off on all monetary choices. “I’ve never taken [money] without her consent,” he stated in the movie. 

The documentary reportedly attracted a median of 1.2 million viewers per night time for Lifetime and over 6 million viewers throughout all platforms the weekend of its debut, in keeping with the swimsuit. Morrissey argues that if Ford, his crew or the defendants have been genuinely involved about Williams' well-being and security, they might have simply chosen the Wells Fargo path, which might be to “stop the exploitation of W.W.H,” Instead, Morrissey notes in the swimsuit: “They kept filming, trolling for the most embarrassing and shocking footage to titillate and sell to their audiences in order to generate more profit for themselves.”

The swimsuit claims the host is now struggling “cruel, debilitating, and progressive neurogenerative diseases that result in significant and readily apparent behavioral changes and gradually rob their victims of the ability to communicate at all.”  

Morrissey insists that the earnings from the present ought to go to Williams, who will want vital funding to offer for correct medical care and supervision for the remainder of her life. The guardian seeks to get well for the harm attributable to defendants, together with the “unjust profits they received by exploiting W.W.H. in her vulnerable state.”

The criticism additionally asks the courtroom to cease A&E from any additional airing, gross sales or launch of the documentary.

It's been virtually three years since Wendy Williams requested her closing “How you doin'?” on TV, and since then, the larger-than-life character has remained principally quiet as rumors have swirled about her well-being. Recently, Williams — accompanied her son, Kevin Hunt Jr. — have been noticed on the holistic retailer Bolingo Balance in Newark, N.J., on Monday, Aug. 19. The outing marks the primary time the tv character has been noticed since March of final 12 months.