Wendy Williams Spotted on Rare Public Outing, Pleads for Release From Conservatorship: ‘I Want Out’
Wendy Williams has been spotted on a public outing for the first time since February.
The former talk show host, 62, was spotted walking around New York City with shopping bags on Wednesday, August 19, as seen in photos obtained by Page Six. She sported a black T-shirt, high-rise jean shorts and black boots and carried a red handbag. Williams was accompanied by a male companion, with whom she was seen chatting as they walked through the streets.
During the outing, Williams was asked by a paparazzo what she had to tell fans about “what she is going through.”
According to the outlet, the TV personality responded, “I want out!”
Williams has been under a court-ordered financial and personal conservatorship in New York since May 2022. At the time, claimed to a New York Supreme Court judge that the former radio DJ was an “incapacitated person” who needed a “temporary guardian” to ensure her “affairs are being properly handled.”
Sabrina E. Morrissey, a New York-based attorney, was subsequently appointed as Williams’ legal guardian.
Williams has voiced her opposition to the guardianship and denied that she is cognitively impaired.
“They say that I need somebody to handle my accounts, and I don’t want that. I want all my money,” she said on Good Morning America in 2022. “I want to see all my money that I worked hard for my entire life. My entire life. I don’t lie, and I don’t cheat, and I don’t steal. I am an honest, hardworking person.”
In 2018, Williams revealed that she had been quietly battling Graves’ disease, a chronic autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the thyroid gland. Her battle with the illness led her to take a hiatus from The Wendy Williams Show in 2020. (The talk show was later canceled in 2022 amid Williams’ health struggles.)
Williams’ team later announced in 2024 that she had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and aphasia the year prior. FTD is a group of brain diseases that affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain and lead to problems with thinking and behavior.
Following her diagnosis, Williams was placed in a treatment center, where her family was unable to contact her.
Last year, Williams submitted paperwork to end her conservatorship in February 2025, but the filing was denied.
The following month, Williams told Page Six that she felt “better than good” amid her health and conservatorship battles.
“I am fabulous. I’m better than good, but have been accused to being otherwise,” she told the outlet in March 2025. “I am very much alive. I deserve freedom, darling.”
Her ex-husband, Kevin Hunter, also filed a $250 million lawsuit in June 2025 attempting to end the guardianship, claiming it had “become a weapon, not a shield.”
Hunter, who was married to Williams from 1999 to 2020, claimed that his ex was “being abused, neglected, and defrauded under the care of court-appointed guardians.”
Williams’ lawyers said they found Hunter’s lawsuit to be “detrimental” to the media personality’s interests, Us reported in July 2025.
“Moreover, [Williams] herself does not believe the complaint is in her best interest,” the paperwork read. (Hunter’s lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in October 2025.)