Lawsuit: Wendy Williams received only $82,000 for documentary

Representatives of Wendy Williams claim that the makers of a devastating television documentary about the talk show host “viciously and shamelessly exploited” her with the project, which chronicles Williams' physical and mental decline after being diagnosed with dementia and aphasia.

On Tuesday, Williams' legal team filed an amended complaint in New York County Supreme Court, demanding that all proceeds from the Lifetime special “Where is Wendy Williams?” be used to cover her extensive medical costs.

Court documents obtained by HuffPost show that Williams was paid just $82,000 for the documentary special, which the lawsuit alleges intentionally portrayed the retired television star in a “highly degrading and embarrassing manner.”

“This is a paltry sum for the use of highly invasive, humiliating footage showing her in the confusing agony of her dementia, while the defendants who profited from streaming the show have likely already made millions,” the lawsuit states.

Although the documentary's exact earnings were not disclosed, Lifetime said the four-and-a-half-hour film, which premiered in February, was the network's most successful documentary debut in two years.

The 75-page lawsuit also alleges that the documentary portrayed Williams as a “laughing stock and drunkard who was “implicitly responsible for his own ongoing suffering,” despite the fact that the makers had promised Williams that the project would have a “positive and beneficial” impact on her career and image.

The amended complaint also argues that Williams was neither mentally nor legally capable of agreeing to the contract to make the documentary, thereby invalidating any written agreement.

Williams has been living under a court-ordered guardianship since May 2022.

Attorneys for Williams' legal guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, called the defendants' conduct inexcusable in a statement to HuffPost on Tuesday.

“As our complaint shows in painful and excruciating detail, A&E, Lifetime and Mark Ford viciously and shamelessly exploited Wendy Williams for their own benefit while she was clearly incapacitated and suffering from dementia,” said the statement from Kaplan Martin LLP and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP.

“Their behavior is truly a shock to the conscience and they should not be allowed to profit from their suffering. We are proud to represent their guardian in holding them accountable.”

Morrissey initially tried to prevent the release of “Where is Wendy Williams?” after the trailer was released.

In a request for a temporary restraining order in February, Morrissey wrote that she was concerned about the “embarrassing, hurtful, degrading and untruthful nature of the documentary and its use of footage” in which Williams was “obviously disabled and incompetent.”

Although the preliminary injunction was granted, the ruling was later overturned on appeal, citing the First Amendment.