Wendy Williams’ recent public outings have been far and few, but her latest appearance this week was for a major milestone.
The former talk show host, whose health issues came to light in recent years, served proud mom energy as she attended son Kevin Hunter Jr.’s college graduation ceremony on Thursday. Hunter, who Williams shares with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, graduated from Florida International University reportedly with a bachelor’s degree in economics.
Photos published by People and New York Post show Williams’ glittery get-up and motorized scooter, which she personalized with luxury fashion accessories including a cup-holder seemingly wrapped in Louis Vuitton’s iconic brown monogram. The Post shared photos of Williams, 60, sitting with family and seemingly wiping away tears as her son walked across the stage to receive his degree. Williams’ father, Thomas Williams, and her sister, Wanda Finnie, also reportedly joined the former TV personality for Hunter’s big day.
Williams has kept a relatively low public profile since she left her daytime talk show in in 2022 amid health and personal struggles. Earlier this year, representatives for Williams revealed she had been diagnosed with aphasia and contemporaneous dementia. Williams also lives with Graves’ disease, a thyroid-related autoimmune condition.
In a February statement, representatives voiced concerns over Williams’ difficulty to process information, her erratic behavior and her struggles to understand financial transactions. News of Williams’ dementia diagnosis broke ahead of Lifetime’s four-part documentary “Where Is Wendy Williams?”
Lifetime’s parent company A+E Networks and production company Entertainment One (also known as eOne) faced legal backlash for the documentary project. Williams’ legal guardian Sabrina Morrissey in February requested a temporary restraining order to keep the documentary from airing, though a New York judge gave Lifetime the green light to move ahead.
Morrissey filed an amended lawsuit in September, alleging that Williams “was highly vulnerable and clearly incapable of consenting to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited.” Morrissey also claimed in legal documents filed last month the TV star is “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled and legally incapacitated.”
In November, the producers behind “Where Is Wendy Williams?” filed a counterclaim, hitting back at Morrissey and her “meritless” allegations related to the Lifetime documentary.
Months prior to the legal fallout, documentary producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson spoke to The Times about the ethics of their Lifetime project. “We never would have entered into the project if we knew that Wendy had dementia,” Ford said in February, adding that Williams’ guardian, team and family signed off on the doc.
“We also knew that we had the power to never air it,” Ford added. “If this film couldn’t go in a redeeming or positive direction, then I guarantee you Lifetime never would have aired it, and we wouldn’t have been interested in airing it.”
Times staff writer Malia Mendez contributed to this report.