Wendy Williams' family speaks out about the guardianship keeping them separated... after the talk show host was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia

Wendy Williams' family members are raising concerns about the restrictive guardianship she has been living under for nearly two years.

Williams, 59, has had a court-appointed guardian since May of 2022, after Wells Fargo raised concerns that she could be the victim of elder abuse.

Ahead of Saturday's release of the Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, her sister, niece and brother have spoke out about how the guardianship makes it impossible to see Williams and difficult to get in touch with her.

'How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who’s in and out of the hospital?' her sister Wanda Finnie wondered while speaking to People.

They have been raising concerns in recent days, just before Williams' care team announced on Thursday that she had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia. 

Wendy Williams ' family members are raising concerns about the restrictive guardianship the 59-year-old talk show host has been living under for nearly two years; seen in February 2020

Williams' family members seem particularly disturbed that she was put under a guardianship without their input, and that they were apparently not considered as potential caregivers and decision makers for her.

'How is that system better than the system the family could put in place? I don't know,' her sister Wanda continued. 'I do know that this system is broken. I hope that at some point, Wendy becomes strong enough where she can speak on her own behalf.'

She said Williams' family members were excluded from the court hearing that instituted the guardianship. 

'All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way, and they walked out, and the family is completely excluded,' Wanda added.

The guardianship got rolling in early 2022, when Williams' bank Wells Fargo froze her accounts after her financial adviser at the time allegedly raised concerns that she was of 'unsound mind,' according to Williams' subsequent court filings.

Wells Fargo then petitioned a New York court to have the talk show host put under a guardianship, which a judge approved later in January 2022.

At the time, the bank claimed it feared that Williams' 'cognitive issues' put her at risk of being exploited financially.

Her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., was accused of charging $100,000 to her American Express card, but he defended himself.

Her Wells Fargo accounts were frozen in 2022, and the bank petitioned successfully to have her put under a guardianship to avoid her being exploited. Her son Kevin Hunter Jr. (pictured in 2019) was accused of charging $100K to her AmEx, but he claimed it was all approved by her

Her son Kevin claimed the purchases were for Wendy's medical treatments, as well as for his schooling, as she had been paying for his tuition before her accounts were frozen

While speaking to The Sun, Hunter Jr. claimed that he used the credit card to charge for his mother's medical treatments, and he said it was their only available payment method while Williams was staying under his care with family in Florida.

He also claimed to have used the card to pay for his schooling expenses, which his mother had been paying for and which was apparently cut off when her accounts were frozen.

However, it's unclear if the bulk of the credit card purchases came before or after she lost access to her Wells Fargo account, and if she had enough available cash to pay for her and Kevin's expenses before the accounts were frozen.

He also accused his mother's manager Bernie Young and the financial advisor of pressuring Williams to return to New York and to her talk show, despite her continuing health issues that led to her departure.

Hunter Jr. claimed the two wanted her to put her career over her health, as they were only making money if she continued to have a steady income stream. 

Following the institution of the guardianship, Williams was seen in public multiple times while drunk, leading to a two-month stay in a wellness facility beginning in September of 2022.

Mark Ford, an executive producer on Where Is Wendy Williams?, saw the concerning episodes as an example of how her guardian was allegedly not supervising her closely enough and attending to her health.

'I think the film is a great illustration of what, in this one particular case, life looked like for someone that was under a guardianship,' he said. 'Just because you're under a guardianship doesn't mean that you're getting 24/7 care, and I think just leaving someone in their apartment isn't care. 

'When we got to know Wendy's family, it was clear to us this was a nice family, and the question remained in our minds: Why is the family not able to be a part of Wendy's life? Why is the family not able to serve as her guardian?' he mused. 'I still don't fully have those answers.'

He said the documentary crew made multiple attempts to reach out to the guardian — whose name has not been publicly revealed — but they were 'hung up on every single time' they tried to call.

'So, we weren't able to really ask the questions that we would've loved to have asked, like, "What's going on here on a daily basis? And why is there no food in Wendy's apartment, for example?" Simple things that we were able to see just because we were there so often,' he continued.

Is was only after the crew discovered Williams unresponsive in her apartment with her eyes rolled back in her head that they were allegedly able to get the guardian to help.

'The guardian did come around and was responsive to our pleas ... to get her into a safer place,' Ford said.

Williams was subsequently admitted to an undisclosed treatment facility, where she reportedly remains to this day. 

Ford noted that he and the other filmmakers struggled with the ethics of depicting Williams in a moment of crisis, though they decided the project was ultimately worthwhile.

Williams' sister Wanda said family members were kept out of the court proceedings, which were initiated by Wells Fargo. A professional guardian — presumably working for profit — was appointed, while family was seemingly not considered for the job; seen in 2019 in NYC

Mark Ford, the EP on her doc, complained that the guardian ignored the crew's phone calls about Williams' cognitive issues, and he claimed she was left along in her apartment without food at times

'We asked ourselves almost every day, "Is this helping Wendy or is this hurting her?"' he said. 'And in the end we felt like it was helping her. This is about the guardianship system and how it can be improved.'

The investigative journalist Diane Dimond told People that around 2 million Americans are currently living under court-appointed guardianships.

She believed that there has been an uptick in appointments of professional guardians, who often work for profit, in recent years.

'More and more, I have discovered, after investigating this for eight or nine years now, judges are overlooking family members, they're overlooking friends, and they're going immediately to these professional, for-profit appointees, and they're complete strangers to these wards of the court,' she said. 'So within that, the ward of the court loses all their civil rights. They have no more rights to decide anything about their personal life or their financial life.'

She added that the same due process rules that apply in criminal or civil court don't apply to guardianship cases that take place in courts of equity.

'There's no trial, there's no right to present opposing witnesses,' she explained. 'Usually, the judge will just take the petition, rubber stamp it, appoint the guardian or conservator and wash his or her hands of the case.'

She added that Williams and other people living under guardianships lose many of their rights, including to 'decide where you live,' while 'you can't spend your money, you can't vote, you can't marry, you can't decide what doctors you're going to see or what friends can come.'

'You have no rights. Somebody on death row has more rights than a person put under a guardianship,' she contended. 'I'm not exaggerating because at least they can hire their own attorney, and they can make phone calls.'

She was allegedly found in her apartment drunk with her eyes rolled back in April 2023, at which point the guardian finally heeded the crew's calls and got Williams professional help; seen in February 2023 in NYC

Williams' family told People that they have not been told what treatment facility she has been staying at, and they can not call her, though she can choose to call them.

Dimond claimed that there was a likelihood that Williams would never be free of her guardianship, as they are 'most often for life.'

After complaining about how many at-risk people with little money are allowed to slip into poverty and homelessness, she added: 'We only seem to care about putting people who've got some money in guardianships, and Wendy Williams has got money.'

However, her family told People they're still optimistic that she might be able to move down to Florida with them.

Williams niece Alex, who is the daughter of her sister Wanda, said she had had 'really great' conversations with the talk show host, though it's unclear if she was speaking during the filming of the documentary, or about more recent conversations.

'I have not heard my aunt sound this good in years,' she claimed. 'To hear my aunt now in terms of just how clear she is, just how focused she is on the importance of family and the reality in terms of facing and understanding where she's at physically and mentally and emotionally, it is like a 180. I'm always just reminding her when I'm on the phone with her that she has a world of people here that love you, are supporting you and want to see you back.'

Despite the family's concern, they are reportedly not contesting her guardianship in court at this time. 

The Wendy Williams Show host's sister, brother and niece previously spoke with People Magazine for its latest cover story on her ongoing health issues and battles with addiction.

They spoke up just weeks after the release of a trailer for an upcoming Lifetime documentary, Where Is Wendy Williams?, which reveals her struggles with alcohol abuse and other alleged 'cognitive issues' in the wake of her final episode as host.

'We've all seen the images over the last few months — and, really, few years — of what has seemed like a spiral for my aunt,' said Alex Finnie, 33, the niece of Williams.

'It was shocking and heartbreaking to see her in this state,' she added of the infamous gossip monger, who serves as an executive producer on the documentary about her.

Williams' sister, brother and niece spoke to People for its new cover story on the talk show host's health struggles in the nearly three years since she last appeared on her show; seen in February 2020 in NYC

Her family revealed Wendy is still living at a treatment facility. They don't know where it's located and can only talk on the phone if Wendy chooses to call them; still from the documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?

Cameras began following Williams around in August of 2022, when she was plotting a comeback with a new podcast.

She had previously taped what would be her final episode of The Wendy Williams Show, though the series would continue in late 2021 and into 2022 with a rotating series of guest hosts filling in for her.

Where the documentary's camera crew expected to find the host getting back into the swing of things, they instead found her battling an alleged alcohol addiction and other health conditions, including Graves disease, an autoimmune disorder that can lead to hyperthyroidism and bulging eyes, and lymphedema, in which a blocked lymphatic system allows fluid to swell up in the body, particularly in the legs and feet.

One seen in the documentary reportedly shows Williams potentially struggling with memory issues as she asks her driver to chauffeur her past her old TV studio — despite having driven her past it just minutes earlier.

'I don’t know what the hell is going on,' her driver admits for the cameras. 'I think she’s losing memory. She doesn’t know who I am sometimes.'

According to People, the documentary ceased filming in April of last year, when Williams entered a treatment facility for what her manager Will Selby describes in the film as 'cognitive issues.' 

Williams' stint at the facility continues, and she can only be visited in person by her court-appointed guardian.

Her sister, niece and brother claim in the new interview that they don't know what facility she is staying at, and they are not allowed to proactively call her.

The doc began filming Wendy in August 2022 before she tried to launch a podcast comeback, but it wrapped in April 2023 after documentary her struggles with alcohol abuse

One seen in the documentary reportedly shows Williams potentially struggling with memory issues as she asks her driver to chauffeur her past her old TV studio — despite having driven her past it just minutes earlier

Instead, they can only speak with her if she chooses to call them. 

'The people who love her cannot see her,' said Williams' sister Wanda, 65, who is also Alex's mother. 'I think the big [question] is: How the hell did we get here?'

Williams' guardian was instituted in May 2022, but her family members say they don't know what sparked the legal action, and the guardian's identity has not been announced, while documents related to their appointment have been sealed.

Williams' son, Kevin Hunter Jr. — whom she shares with her ex-husband Kevin Hunter — comes under suspicion for allegedly stealing some of her money in the documentary, though he denies it on camera.

'I've never taken [money] without her consent,' he says in the the film, though Wendy's sister Wanda claims he is still financially supported by his mother. 

In the documentary, Williams also alleges that her guardian has stolen money from her, though the filmmakers say she provided no evidence to back up her claim.

In February 2022, The Wendy Williams Show announced that its host would not be returning for the rest of the season, and the show was canceled by June.

'The people who love her cannot see her,' said Williams' sister Wanda, 65. 'I think the big [question] is: How the hell did we get here?'

Her niece Alex said 'the first sign something was really wrong' was when Williams fainted on the air while wearing a Statue of Liberty costume in 2017, which she later blamed on her Graves disease

'Wendy loved doing the show,' a source in the production told the publication. 'Losing it just broke her.'

'We were the little engine that could,' added another source from the show. 'When we got renewed each season, we were shocked. They say fish stinks from the head, but if it’s great, fish glows from the head. In this case, we all basked in Wendy’s glow.'

But others said that things weren't going well behind the scenes, due to Williams alcohol consumption.

'She would be drunk on air,' the same source claimed. 'Slowly, we started being like, "What’s going on with her?"'

Her niece Alex said 'the first sign something was really wrong' was when Williams fainted on the air while wearing a Statue of Liberty costume in 2017, which she later blamed on her Graves disease.

The Wendy William Show co-executive producer Suzanne Bass added: 'As her situation grew worse, she pushed us away.'

Williams' family attributed some of her struggles to the anguish caused by her son Kevin going away to college, followed a year later in 2019 by her admission that she was living in a sober house and her divorce filing from Kevin Hunter Sr. after he had a child with another woman.

'[Wendy's mom] Shirley, may she rest in peace, would always remind me that your aunt would trade everything that she has — every dime, every car, every wig — to be able to have a strong loving household and a loving husband,' her niece said. 'That was ripped from her right after her son had to go off to college [in 2018]. Emotionally, it was just a lot. It was too much for her world.'

Her family said some of her issues were caused by the stress of her son Kevin leaving for college in 2018, followed by her divorce from her husband the following year and the death of her mother; pictured in February 2023 in NYC

Executive producer Mark Ford said the film's producers got in touch with Williams' guardian for help after the crew found her at home with her eyes rolled back after allegedly getting drunk

Wendy's brother Tommy was on the same page, saying, 'It put her back into that dark space.'

Her sister Wanda claimed that Wendy 'never grieved' the death of their mother Shirley — whom she called the host's 'greatest advocate and strongest support system out of anybody in this family' —  in November 2020.

According to the documentary filmmakers, they ultimately stopped filming in April 2023 after documenting a series of disturbing drunken incidents, before finally finding Williams unresponsive in her home with her eyes rolled back into her head.

Executive producer Mark Ford said the film's producers got in touch with Williams' guardian to get her help 

'The guardian did come around and was responsive to our pleas... to get her into a safer place,' he said.

Her sister Wanda is now shocked that Wendy deteriorated so much in such a short period of time.

'How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who’s in and out of the hospital?' she mused. 'How is that system better than the system the family could put in place? This system is broken.'

However, the publication notes that her family is not contesting her guardianship in court at the moment.

Her family complained about her guardian, whose name has not been revealed, though they are not contesting the arrangement in court

Executive producer Ford ultimately decided the documentary — which Williams also executive produced — was beneficial because it reveals alleged issues with the conservatorship system

The EP Ford described the documentary's producers wrestling over whether their film would help or hurt Williams, though they ultimately decided that it would be beneficial by revealing alleged issues with the guardianship system governing her.

For now, her family is simply hoping Williams will make enough of a recovery to get back into their lives.

'There is not a person in this family who doesn’t want the same thing for Wendy, and that is her health,' her sister Wanda said.

Her niece Alex added: 'She can’t wait to start the next chapter of her life.'