Some fans are calling 'Where Is Wendy Williams?' documentary 'exploitative' and hard to watch

• Wendy Williams' new documentary "Where Is Wendy Williams?" addressed her health and legal drama.
• It was originally supposed to be about her career comeback but shifted due to her declining health.

Wendy Williams' recent two-night Lifetime documentary caused a backlash among her most loyal fans, called Wendy Watchers.

"Where Is Wendy Wiliams?," released over the weekend, followed the daytime TV star from August 2022 to April 2023, painfully showing her declining physical and mental health. But getting the documentary to the finish line wasn't without its challenges.

Two days before the premiere, Williams' care team revealed via a press release that she was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2023.

Shortly after this diagnosis was revealed, TMZ and The Hollywood Reporter said that Sabrina Morrissey, Williams' financial guardian, filed a lawsuit against Lifetime's parent company, A&E Television Networks. Still, the four-part documentary aired on Lifetime as planned.

Here's a complete breakdown of the most revelatory aspects of Williams' documentary and the drama that's unfolded since its release.

The documentary was initially conceptualized as a way to follow Williams' career comeback

After being a prominent figure of daytime TV for more than a decade, Williams stepped away from "The Wendy Williams Show" to deal with her health issues. The talk show was subsequently canceled and aired its final episode in June 2022.

Executive producer Mark Ford told THR that the documentary was supposed to document Williams launching her podcast and returning to the spotlight.

"But as we filmed, it became evident that this wasn't really going to be a career comeback story, that this was going to be a deeper story, and that there was something ultimately disturbing going on in Wendy's life," Ford said.

As Williams' erratic behavior intensified, the doc's focus shifted to her family's concern

The documentary offered glimpses of the Williams that fans know and love. Still, the TV personality was often shown to be demanding and aggressive toward her manager, Will Selby, her publicist, Shawn Zanotti, and crew members.

The early parts of the documentary touched on Williams' attempt to get her podcast off the ground. It later pivoted to family members expressing worry about her well-being and the financial guardianship that she was put under in May 2022. The documentary detailed that Williams' family was removed from overseeing her care when the legal guardian was appointed.

Ford told THR that the documentary, which was executive produced by Williams, ultimately became more of a cautionary tale, centered on "the family's point of view and illustrating what can happen when one of your family members is put into a guardianship outside of your control."

Many of Williams' family sat down for interviews for the documentary, including her son Kevin Hunter Jr. (who has an executive producer credit), her dad Tommy Williams Sr., her brother Tommy Williams Jr., her sister Wanda Finnie, her niece Alex Finnie, and her nephew Travis Finnie.

In interviews, Williams' family said they didn't think she was healthy enough to work and felt that people around the star weren't operating in her best interests.

Producers said they wouldn't have filmed Williams if they were aware of her dementia diagnosis

The documentary showed Williams struggling with her declining health, alcohol abuse, cognitive abilities, financial struggles, and vulnerable emotional state. Given the intense and heartbreaking material, fans and critics slammed the documentary and called it "exploitative."

"What's now clear is that 'Where Is Wendy Williams?' is not a series about the next chapter of Williams' life but instead an exploitative display of her cognitive decline and emotional well-being," wrote Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu.

Business Insider reached out to Lifetime for comment. Still, the producers defended the documentary during interviews with THR and Today.com.

"Everyone knows that Wendy has a reputation as one of the most radical truth-tellers in the history of media," Ford told Today.com. "So, we hope that the film honors her legacy of radical transparency even when it's painful. We just really felt, as filmmakers, that it was important to capture the truth and not sanitize it."

Similarly, Ford told THR that the crew was just in the dark as fans and learned new information — like Williams' dementia diagnosis — as they went along.

"If we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would've rolled a camera," Ford said.

What happens next? The guardianship will be reviewed this year, and her family hopes to be put in charge.

In accordance with New York state law, the court must review the guardianship every year. When asked in the documentary if Williams should have a guardian, Hunter said the responsibility should go to her family.

"The family's side of the story hasn't been told, so it's kind of this gray space of who's really telling the truth or what's going on," Hunter said in the doc. "I've always wanted the best for my mom."

"I feel like the situation that she's in right now isn't really the best situation for her journey of trying to heal," he added.

Williams is now at an undisclosed medical facility

By the documentary's conclusion, Williams' New York apartment was emptied, and the star was living in a medical facility at an undisclosed location.

In an interview with People magazine released before the documentary's premiere, Wanda and Alex said that Williams appeared healthier recently.

"I spoke with her yesterday and I speak with her very regularly when she reaches out to me. She is, from what I understand, in a wellness, healing type of environment," Wanda said.