Wendy Williams’ tragic battle with dementia is playing out in a new court dispute between her legal guardian Sabrina Morrissey and A&E Networks.
Following the release of court documents filed by Morrissey claiming the former talk show host was “incapacitated prior to and during filming” for Lifetime’s documentary “Where Is Wendy Williams?,” A&E has filed a countersuit alleging Morrissey is trying to distract from her own failure to protect Williams.
Lifetime’s parent company filed the suit in response to Morrissey’s Nov. 12 filing, which claimed the network didn’t have Williams’ consent or a valid contract to air the controversial doc in February. Morrissey says Williams’ rapidly declining condition left her “clearly incapable of consenting to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited.”
The program, which detailed Williams’ financial troubles, health struggles and alcohol abuse, “cruelly took advantage of Williams’ cognitive and physical decline,” Morrissey says in the documents. She claims producers “intentionally manipulated and goaded” Williams in order to “trigger strong emotional reactions and acquire embarrassing footage.”
In response, A&E says Morrissey is infringing on their First Amendment rights by trying to get portions of the documentary removed or changed, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.
The media company insists that Williams signed a talent agreement prior to her dementia diagnosis and before she ever had a legal guardian. They say they have a right to tell her story, noting there’s no law against releasing a documentary on a subject with dementia.
The suit claims Morrissey is now trying to deny Williams “one of her last chances to exercise her autonomy and honestly reach her fans in exactly the frank and unfiltered manner that was the hallmark of her career.”
Wendy Williams hosted her eponymous talk show for 14 years before it came to an end in 2022 amid her declining health but before she received her dementia diagnosis. In February of this year, her former producers said they feared it was “impossible” the talk show host would ever return to TV.
