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The producers of Where is Wendy Williams? The documentary set out to tell a very different story.
Mark Ford and Erica Hanson are executive producers of Wendy Williams’ 2019 Lifetime documentary. Wendy Williams: What a disaster! and their goal with the second documentary, filmed from August 2022 until production stopped in April 2023, was to pick up where they left off.
Ford tells Yahoo Entertainment: The intention was to “follow her honest journey to recover her career, get over her divorce, and get her life back. But gradually, as the story was revealed to us, it became clear that there was a deeper story that we, as filmmakers, had to tell.”
Viewers watched it over the weekend and They were alarmed. The “Queen of Media,” with celebrity gossip’s fiery versions of her from her purple throne, was mired in addiction. She lived alone and lacked adequate care. She was confused and senseless. The tutelage she was under, as well as her team, had apparently failed her. We now know (announced in a Guardian press release just before the documentary aired) that Williams has primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). She has been in a treatment center since April.
“If we had known about his diagnosis before the movie started, no one would have rolled a camera,” Ford says in the middle of reaction that Williams was exploited. “We were on a journey to discover the truth of: What was going on with Wendy?”, who the previous year left her hit talk show, was placed under conservatorship over her finances and well-being and was photographed in public wearing the robe of her bathroom.
Ford says it was “a gradual process” during filming, Williams’ behavior became “more erratic” and she was isolated in her apartment. That’s when they brought their family, including Williams’ son (Kevin Hunter Jr.), his sister (Wanda Finnie), his father (Thomas Williams), his brother (Tommy Williams) and his niece (Alex Finnie), and gave them They asked, “What’s really going on?” here? Why aren’t you guys around here? Do you want to be close? Why is she alone in this apartment with no access to alcohol? Why aren’t there caregivers who help on a daily basis? Why is there no food in your refrigerator?
Over time, they realized that “Wendy had more than just alcohol,” Ford says.
Hanson was there for the daily shoot with Williams. She has sometimes been heard talking to the star of the documentary while things were falling apart.
“It was a very complex and delicate story to tell,” Hanson says. “It was a delicate balance knowing: When should we stop filming?”
Those moments, like the vaping scene, a seemingly harmless shoot during which Williams pivoted and production stopped, began happening daily.
“We really wanted to shed light on what was happening during this period of his life when he wasn’t with his family, when he was in New York,” Hanson explains. “The isolation she found herself in. The loneliness I was going through. His fight against addiction. In fact, we worry: What would have happened if we weren’t there? Could he have fallen down the stairs? In the end, we put pressure on Will (Selby, Williams’ manager), who was our conduit to the tutor, and she got into a facility, thanks to the tutor. But sometimes it was heartbreaking to see what she faced. “We wanted to tell it as thoughtfully as possible, but to be honest, sometimes the truth is uncomfortable.”
Ford says that “there are many versions of this documentary that would never have seen the light of day” if there had not been what he calls a “hopeful” ending, in which Williams was placed in care and her family members had the opportunity to raise questions. about guardianship.
“To be very clear, in the entire chapter that we documented of Wendy in the film, she was under a legal guardianship, appointed by the court and supposedly entrusted with her financial and medical well-being,” Ford says. “People can watch the film and decide for themselves whether that was the right level of care.”
Hanson hopes the documentary will raise questions about how a conservatorship works or doesn’t work. In this case, Williams’ relatives have said they have been prevented from seeing her or calling her. were kept in the dark about his diagnosis.
“How is it possible that a son cannot call a mother?” Hanson asks. “It’s been how many months? “It’s really hard to understand that, so I hope we were able to raise some really important questions through the family by sharing their experiences and concerns.”
The Guardian filed a lawsuit against A&E Network, Lifetime’s parent company, on February 22 to stop the documentary from airing in a two-night event. While Ford said they are “not aware of the ins and outs of the lawsuit,” he did note that the temporary restraining order was successfully challenged based on the First Amendment. They “could not restrict the publication of the documentary or the voice of Wendy and her family and the right to speak about her.”
As for their hopes for Williams now that his story and diagnosis are known, they hope he receives the care he needs. (Williams’ brother said Wednesday that the family is trying to remove her from the treatment center take care of it themselves.)
“If I could talk to her, I would just like to hear her voice,” Hanson says. “Even in the movie, at the end, when she calls and you hear a flash of her voice on the other end, it sounds different, even to me. She sounds louder. And I would just love to know that she is in a better and stronger place and that she is getting the right treatment.”
Ford adds his own message to Williams: “I hope you get the rest and care you need. We know the documentary is not easy to watch, but I hope you feel the love that your millions of fans share with you in this difficult time.