Wendy Williams Regrets Seeking Guardianship After Controlling Factors

Three years ago, Wendy Williams allegedly consented to the courts appointing her a legal guardian to oversee her affairs — and now the media mogul has expressed her regret about the decision. Since May 2022, the former talk show queen has been under the legal guardianship of Sabrina Morrissey, who controls her finances and healthcare.

Her health care advocate, Ginalisa Monterroso, recently told PEOPLE that Williams initially agreed to the guardianship, believing it would be a safeguard against financial exploitation. She recounted that Wendy initially trusted the process initially, but came to regret it. “She kind of felt like, ‘Hey, I have the court. They’re going to assign me a money person. I’m going to be good.’ In no way did she think that her whole life was going to be taken away from her.”

“She wanted to make sure nobody’s in her money and she would be fine,” she further explained. However, Wendy did not anticipate the extent of control it would take over her life — restricting her access to the internet, a cell phone, and even her own personal autonomy.

Under the guardianship, the 60-year-old no longer has the right to choose where she lives, how she spends her money, or even maintain her own bank account. Any out-of-state travel requires special permission from Morrissey and, at times, Judge Lisa A. Sokoloff, who oversees her case. “You have no rights,” Monterroso emphasized. “Somebody in prison has more rights than a person put under a guardianship.”

Wendy currently resides in a luxury high-rise assisted-living facility in New York due to cognitive challenges and a dementia diagnosis in 2023. There is only one person given unrestricted access to her: her court-appointed guardian.

As for whether Wendy’s family could step in as guardians, Monterroso states that the former radio host prefers not to involve them, not wanting to “burden them with anything.” Wendy’s sister, Wanda Finnie, voiced frustration about the matter last year. “How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who’s in and out of the hospital? How is that system better than the system the family could put in place? I don’t know. I do know that this system is broken.”

On Jan. 16, Williams was in tears as she pleaded for her release from guardianship during a rare interview on The Breakfast Club.

“I am not cognitively impaired, but I feel like I am in prison,” she declared. “I’m in this place with people who are in their nineties and their eighties and their seventies… These people, there’s something wrong with these people here on this floor. I am clearly not.”

Two months later, she pressed a handwritten note against the window of her facility reading, “Help! Wendy!” prompting police and medical personnel to intervene. On March 10, she was transported to a local hospital for evaluation, with Monterroso later claiming the note was “more of a joke” and that she and Williams had planned the 911 call strategically to attract media attention and push for another competency assessment.

Monterroso has since filed a complaint with Adult Protective Services, asserting that Williams “passed” the hospital’s mental capacity evaluation. “She was alert and oriented, and we were satisfied with that,” she said. After her hospital visit, Williams was seen enjoying dinner with her niece, Alex Finnie, before returning to her facility in a pink fuzzy Versace robe, waving to onlookers.

Supporters are ready to put boots on the ground and rally behind Wendy. Reportedly, bicoastal protests for Wendy’s freedom are taking place today (April 1) at Coterie Hudson Yards in New York and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, beginning at 10:00 A.M. local time. A GoFundMe has also been launched to raise $50,000 for Wendy’s legal fight.

From inside her New York residence, Wendy is expected to cheer on supporters from her window until 2 P.M. ET.