We are witnessing the literal resurgence of our queen of tea, shade, and daytime, Wendy Williams. And it’s been a long journey: it almost was 2 years ago when The Daily Mail broke the story about her satanic soon to be ex-husband having a whole house and mistress on the side. This turned into a family on the side this past February when Sharina Hudson gave birth to a baby girl in Philadelphia. To pile on, the birth of the baby coincided with Wendy’s stay in a sober house, which she disclosed to her audience in March.
Now, Wendy is telling us in real time how happy she is after what was clearly a chaotic start to 2019. In December, after suffering from health issues compounded by an injury that became clear on the air during an interview with The Lox, Wendy took an extended leave on her show until March. This was hard for fans, like me, because watching her hot topics is part of my self-care routine, but we believed she was resting in order to come back 100%.
People (ahem Charlemagne and Dj Envy) like to point out Wendy can’t possibly spill the tea and expose the lives of celebrities and not spill her own. Interestingly, Charlemagne and Wendy have a long history - she was his mentor in radio and even let him live with her and Kevin when he was starting his career. According to Charlemagne, Kevin Hunter is responsible for their epic falling out years ago, which was over Sharina Hudson expressing interest in one of his friends. Now, and to the delight of fans of both, Wendy and Charlemagne have reconciled.
As for Charlemagne’s point about gossip and specifically gossip about Wendy - gossip is Wendy’s job and has been for 30 years, she’s made a living off of gossiping about celebrities, doing it so well she became a celebrity herself. Historically, this was rarer as we are now in influencer culture where more people have an opportunity to become famous. When Wendy was coming up though, Oprah would be an example of a host/talker who rose to epic fame and had to carefully address rumours about her own life. Interestingly, Wendy has paid homage to Oprah many times throughout the years on her show, but is always careful to tell us not to hold her to the same standard. And in 2011, Wendy fanned out when Oprah sent her a letter, revealing to her audience that Oprah scolded her for talking greasy about Gayle King, but then signed the letter “love Oprah.
Loyal Wendy watchers know that in the early days of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, all of the Kardashian sisters and Kris Jenner appeared on her show. What comes to my mind as the nail in the coffin was when Wendy grilled Kris about Kim’s doomed marriage to Kris Humphries on the show. Following that, the family distanced themselves from Wendy, and Wendy then began referring to Kris as “that woman” going on to thoroughly drag the Kardashians any time she could. Kim recently told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that she actually likes Wendy, but we know the Kardashians are too big to do any press that isn’t totally pro-Kardashian.
More seriously and in her radio days, Wendy exposed the fact that Method Man’s wife was going through a cancer battle, totally violating his wife’s privacy and family business. It’s no wonder rappers and Mariah Carey bring up Wendy in their lyrics when talking about people who don’t mind their business. It’s likely all of this that Wendy keeps in mind as she moves through and past her own scandal while in front of the camera. I’m not exactly sure what people want from Wendy in terms of exposing her personal life, but whatever it is, it’s either going to be too much or not enough.
Since filing for divorce and beginning to separate from Kevin, Wendy has reconnected with many people and clearly has a new, liberated lease on life. Just yesterday, she responded to rumors that she was canoodling with a man who looked like Kevin, or in her words, “looked like her type.” So we are seeing Wendy using her show to talk about how she is reclaiming her life, even scolding us for being too hard on Satanic Kevin, because of how their child, Kevin Jr, is coping. Not only did she clarify the Kevin lookalike was Webb, a part of her security team, she gleefully declared herself to be a single and pretty New York girl reclaiming her life with the ultimate bachelorette pad high atop everything with a really good view. I went nuts along her studio audience. It really feels great to see Wendy appear happier, lighter and enjoying her blessings.
Yesterday, it was announced that she is dissolving The Hunter Foundation, that she ran with Kevin. Wendy will most likely continue to work with and advocate for people with addictions, without the dead weight of the big Kev. As a fan, I am loving all of it.
