[ad_1]
Wendy Williams’ best friend has slammed her legal guardian, claiming that the woman tasked with taking care of the TV host her without ‘access to food.’
The former TV personality, 59, was placed under a legal guardianship in May 2022, after her bank account said it had ‘strong reason to believe’ that she was of ‘unsound mind’ and was ‘the victim of undue influence and financial exploitation.’
At the time, the court assigned someone to manage Wendy’s finances and health, and while their identity was not made public at first, TMZ recently revealed that Wendy’s guardian was a New York-based lawyer named Sabrina Morrissey.
Now, one of her best friends, Regina Shell, who has known Wendy since she was only 13 years old, has spoken out against her guardian.
During a recent appearance on Chris Cuomo’s News Nation series, Cuomo, Regina claimed that the broadcaster had ‘no access to her money’ and had to ask permission from Sabrina for any purchase she wanted to make – including meals.
She alleged that this sometimes meant Wendy would go hours on end without eating, which left Regina so worried that she started ordering food for her from across the country.
‘When I was in New York and staying with Wendy in the summer, I noticed … she had no access to her money,’ Regina shared on Monday evening.
‘Every time she had to do anything that she had to pay for, she had to go through the guardian.
‘And she would call to order her breakfast at 7:30 in the morning with the guardian, and she would take the order, but the order wouldn’t show up until sometimes noon. So Wendy wouldn’t have any food.’
Regina said that when she returned home to Los Angeles, she began sending her ‘delivery service’ because she was nervous that Wendy ‘wasn’t getting’ enough to eat.
‘When I went back to LA, I would have to send her food from Los Angeles to New York for delivery service, because she wasn’t getting…’ she trailed off.
‘The communication wasn’t there, and she had no other access to money than this guardian.
‘That’s what was concerning to me, because [Wendy] was telling me she didn’t have food.
‘[Me] and her publicist, who also lives out in LA, both of us were going back and forth sending food to Wendy because she wasn’t having access to food.’
Wendy’s care team revealed that she was suffering from frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia last week days before Lifetime released a shocking new documentary about her, entitled Where Is Wendy Williams?
In the new special, which premiered on Saturday and Sunday, her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., said her condition was ‘alcohol-induced.’
But Regina questioned the diagnosis, telling Chris, ‘I haven’t heard an official diagnosis from a doctor.
‘You know, I’ve heard from [her] team – and we don’t know who the team is – and from Kevin, and her nephew, Travis, but no doctor has actually confirmed these diagnoses.
‘Maybe I’m in denial because I’m so close to the issue. In reflection, I see the behaviours that could potentially be [from] such a diagnosis, but I don’t want to believe that she is at this point unproducible. That’s not my opinion.
Days ahead of the documentary’s release, TMZ reported that Wendy’s guardian had filed a lawsuit against the parent company of Lifetime, A&E Television Networks.
Sabrina had asked the court for injunctive relief, indicating her request could have been an attempt to stop the network from airing the TV special – but a judge ultimately dismissed the case citing the First Amendment.
Soon after, it was revealed by The Sun that Sabrina was facing her own legal battle.
According to the publication, Sabrina, her firm Morrissey & Morrissey LLP, and about 10 other attorneys were named as defendants in a $30 million lawsuit filed by a man named Jose Verdugo in November 2022 and again in August 2023.
Sabrina reportedly acted as Jose’s guardian from 2010 until 2015, but he accused the defendants of conspiring to ‘perpetuate a baseless guardianship’ and ‘exploiting’ him ‘for their own personal financial gain.’
[ad_2]