Update: 6/7/2023: Will Selby, Wendy’s manager, refuted Kevin’s claims when speaking with Entertainment Tonight. ” “Taking advantage of her for what? To get what? To do what? I’m not here to brag, but I was doing just okay before Wendy came along and I insisted on helping her because she requested my assistance,” he said.
“Wendy is under a guardianship. Everything that she does gets approved by the guardianship. A court-appointed guardianship,” continued Selby. “So, no one, even if they wanted to take advantage of her — everything has to get approved by that court. So, any type of business dealings that we do, Wendy, myself, and anyone — we have to get the guardianship to sign off on it. So how can anyone take advantage of her?”
Selby also criticized Kevin for speaking with The Sun. “If your mother was near death would the first thing you do is call an online publication?” he asked. “Okay. So, that’s all I have to say about that… I usually don’t do this. I’m only speaking on behalf of my client, and I’m not trying to have a debate with Kevin. You know he’s a young man, and honestly, I feel like he’s gone through a lot. He’s probably dealing with a lot. I have a son that’s the same age as him, and sometimes you just make poor decisions, in my opinion, and I’m just speaking to my son.”
“I’m not here to be combative about whatever allegations he has. He’s entitled to his opinion. I’m just trying to say that us, as adults, let’s be responsible and let’s actually utilize some common sense.”
Wendy’s rep, Shawn Zanotti, said that Wendy is taking steps to be in a “better place” while claiming that Kevin Jr. spread “false narratives” and blamed The Sun for not “fully vetting” the information.
“Wendy is at a facility doing her best to be her best. She’s taking it day by day,” Selby added. “She’s only thinking about things that she wants to do in her life. She’s only thinking about Wendy 2.0 and her new chapter of her life, and the things that she wants to accomplish, and that’s our focus.”
Original: “I know there are all sorts of things happening that I know, in her right mind, she would never agree to. As hard as it is seeing her being taken advantage of, I know that if I’m making sure she, as a person, is okay, that is the important thing,” Kevin Hunter Jr., 22, told The Sun. The son of Wendy Williams and her ex-husband, Kevin Hunter, expressed for his mother’s well-being, saying that the former daytime talk show host would eventually “realize the craziness that’s been going on.”
“What’s been made more important by the people around her is that, while her health may not be great, she needs to keep on earning income, and in my opinion, that should not be a priority at all,” said Kevin. “And whoever has been hired – they are taking advantage of someone who needs to get better. … They had her in a position where she was agreeing to a lot that she shouldn’t have. When I heard that, that turned me off. In trying to attempt to know what everyone’s intention is around her, at first, I was like, ‘Okay, this is the team she wants to have around.’ But once I heard that she was agreeing to stuff around her rehab, I thought, ‘Well, okay- they are taking advantage.'”
HollywoodLife reached out to Wendy’s rep for a comment.
Kevin said his mother’s health has declined since she lived with him in Florida from late 2021 to spring 2022. Wendy has apparently returned to living in New York, away from her son.
“I think that it’s best for her to have to prioritize her health first,” Kevin said in his first interview. His mother has dealt with Graves’ disease for over five years and has continued to work on her health since the end of her show in 2022. “Nobody around her will tell her this, but she doesn’t have to be working. She needs to take a break from trying to progress her career and just be proud of what she’s accomplished,” said her son.
“I am hoping and praying that the people who are up there [in New York] with her right now don’t lead her down the path to where something can’t happen to help her,” he told The Sun. “If there was a way or if there was a plan I could think of, I wouldn’t be here doing this interview. I would be doing something that I could do.”
Kevin spoke about his mother’s sobriety. In October 2022, Wendy left rehab after two months of treatment. She entered the facility to seek help to “manage her overall health issues.” Kevin told The Sun, “There are a lot of people who are very aware that there is an issue with her drinking and how that issue may be helped, but I think these people are taking advantage of it while allowing it to play out to make it look like they aren’t causing the issue.”
Wendy was placed under guardianship in 2022 when Wells Fargo froze her bank account when the institution reportedly “recently witnessed signs of exploitation, including [Williams’] own expressed apprehensions.”
“It’s been really sad what’s been allowed to happen,” Kevin Jr. told The Sun, “And ever since the court hearings ended, something just has to be brought to light about what’s going on and how much people are taking in this situation. In terms of who is there now, people have put other things in front of her actually healing and getting better, and unfortunately, unlike many other alcoholics, she is worth a lot more money.”
“I don’t feel like [the guardian] has done a great job at all,” said Kevin. “I think that based on her actions, I’d have to assume something is going on that she’s not telling me.”