Wendy Williams is a proud mother at her son Kevin’s graduation amid her battle with dementia

On December 21, 2024By Littum

Wendy Williams, with long, light blonde hair, holds the skirt of a flowing, star-patterned dress in Hollywood — Former talk show host Wendy Williams attended her son Kevin Hunter Jr.’s college graduation at Florida International University. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/Associated Press)

Wendy Williams’ recent public outings have been few and far between, but her latest appearance this week was a major milestone.

The former talk show host, whose health issues have come to light in recent years, channeled proud mom energy as she attended son Kevin Hunter Jr.’s college graduation on Thursday. Hunter, whom Williams shares with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, graduated from Florida International University reportedly with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Photos published by People and the New York Post shows Williams’ glitzy get-up and motorized scooter, which she personalized with luxury fashion accessories, including a cup holder apparently wrapped in Louis Vuitton’s iconic brown monogram. The post shared photos of Williams, 60, who sat with family and appeared to wipe away tears as her son walked across the stage to receive his degree. Williams’ father, Thomas Williams, and her sister, Wanda Finnie, also reportedly joined the former TV personality for Hunter’s big day.

Williams has kept a relatively low public profile since leaving her daytime talk show in 2022 amidst health and personal struggles. Earlier this year, representatives for Williams revealed that she had been diagnosed with aphasia and concurrent dementia. Williams also lives with Graves’ disease, a thyroid-related autoimmune condition.

In a February statement, representatives expressed concern about Williams’ difficulty processing information, her erratic behavior and her struggle to understand financial transactions. News of Williams’ dementia diagnosis broke ahead of Lifetime’s four-part documentary “Where’s Wendy Williams?”

Lifetime’s parent company A+E Networks and production company Entertainment One (also known as eOne) faced legal backlash for the documentary project. Williams’ legal guardian Sabrina Morrissey in February requested temporary detention to prevent the documentary from airing, even though a New York judge gave Lifetime the green light to go ahead.

Morrissey filed an amended lawsuit in September, claiming Williams “was very vulnerable and clearly unable to consent to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited.” Morrissey also claimed in legal documents filed last month that the TV star is “cognitively impaired, permanently disabled and legally incapacitated.”

In November, the producers behind “Where’s Wendy Williams?” filed a counterclaim, hitting back at Morrissey and her “meritless” claims related to the Lifetime documentary.

Months before the legal fallout, documentary producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson spoke to The Times about the ethics of their Lifetime project. “We never would have gone into the project if we knew Wendy had dementia,” Ford said in February, adding that Williams’ guardian, team and family signed the docket.

“We also knew we had the power to never air it,” Ford added. “If this movie couldn’t go in a redemptive or positive direction, I guarantee you Lifetime would never have shown it and we wouldn’t have been interested in airing it.”

Times staff writer Malia Mendez contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.