“I am not cognitively impaired. No. But I feel like I’m in prison,” said former talk show host Wendy Williams to Power 105.1 NYC’s “The Breakfast Club.” 

Williams was able to publicly open up, for the first time, about the guardianship she is under, during an interview with co-hosts Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy, and Jess Hilarious, as well as guest host Loren LoRosa Boyd on Jan. 16, 2025.

As we reported previously, in January 2022, Wells Fargo froze Williams’ accounts and a judge later appointed a financial guardian for her, after the banking institution called her an “incapacitated person” in a letter to the judge. Sabrina E. Morrissey is Williams’ guardian, but Williams did not identify Morrissey by name during the interview. Instead, Williams referred to her as “this person” or “this guardian person.” 

When asked about alleged “conservatorship abuse,” Williams responded to Charlamagne, “Look, this system is broken, this system that I’m in. This system has falsified a lot.”

Williams’ niece Alex Finnie joined her for the sit-down and echoed her aunt’s sentiment that she is imprisoned.

“She’s there in New York in this place, essentially like what some would call a luxury prison, right,” said Finnie. “This is her room that’s legally her apartment, but the thing about this apartment, and you know Aunt Wendy because you’re there, it’s small. She has a bed, a chair, a TV, a bathroom, and she’s looking out one window at buildings across the street.”

The “Queen of All Media” who certainly has the gift of gab is reportedly allowed to call her family and friends, but they’re not able to call her, Williams and her niece said in the interview. Williams also added that the mobile phone in her possession now isn’t her previous phone with all her contacts. It also doesn’t seem to have internet access, and Williams said she doesn’t know about the alleged rumors about her mental fitness Morrissey has been accused of planting in the press. 

Williams revealed that she spends her days watching TV, talking on the phone, listening to the radio, and looking out her window. She said she even had to ask the guardian to buy her a big-screen TV, as she likes to watch, because she doesn’t have access to her own money. 

“My money is in prison,” said Williams, who also revealed she had only $15 in her possession at the time of the interview.

Williams is being kept in a facility in New York City that seems to cater to elderly patients, invalids, and maybe others under guardianship.

“Where I am, OK, you have to get keys to unlock the door to press the elevator to go downstairs, first of all,” Williams divulged to “The Breakfast Club” listeners. “Second of all, these people here, everybody is like nursemaids, so to speak. They come in and they give you your pills, and then, they leave.”

She continued, “There are seven pills (and) I have no idea what is this pill doing.” 

Williams also claims her guardian won’t let her see the thyroid specialist she’s seen within the past 24 years she’s known about her Graves’ disease condition. The guardian allegedly told Williams that the medication she has been prescribed for her thyroid is perfect, recalls Williams.

“I’m definitely isolated,” said Williams. “And to talk to the people who actually live here, that’s not my cup of tea. They’re good people, but I keep the door closed. I watch TV. I listen to radio. I watch the window. I sit here like my life (is passing me) by.”

Finnie says Williams stays in her room every minute of the day and isn’t getting proper sunlight. She recalled visiting her aunt last October and said there was a high level of security, as well as staff questioning who she is and what was the purpose of her visit.

Boyd also detailed her experience of attempting to visit Williams at the facility the previous day. She said the concierge called Morrissey, even though Boyd was already on the phone with Williams, who was pleading for the staff to let Boyd upstairs or bring Williams down to confirm Boyd as a guest. The concierge allegedly tried and failed to speak with the guardian on the phone, and then, says Boyd, some men came and told her there wasn’t anyone there by Williams’ name and they didn’t know Morrissey. Boyd said she eventually left because she didn’t feel comfortable staying in the lobby after the confrontation with the staff.

Finnie also revealed that she wasn’t able to visit Williams for her birthday on July 18, 2024. Sadly, Williams said she has spent her past three birthdays alone.

Williams lucidly recalled that her parents, Shirley and Thomas Williams Sr., were the first of her relatives to move from New Jersey to Florida. Now, her entire family, including her son and 93-year-old widower father, lives in Miami. 

She wants to move to Miami also, but she isn’t allowed to make that decision for herself. Instead, Morrissey controls seemingly every major factor of Williams’ life, including whether she’ll be able to visit her father for his 94th birthday next month.

“I’m exhausted thinking about, what if I can’t see my dad for his birthday,” said Williams. “You know, at 94, the day after that is not promised. It’s not promised,” she choked out.

“My life is like fu–ed up,” Williams cried.

Williams and Finnie fear Morrissey could retaliate for “The Breakfast Club” interview, but said they felt it was their only recourse. 

“What if they take my phone? I won’t be able to talk to anybody,” Williams sobbed, while considering potential acts of retaliation. Williams also revealed that her twin cats, Chit Chat and My Way, were previously taken from her and she’s unaware of their whereabouts.

Finnie revealed that she fears Williams will be moved and her family will lose contact with her again. She says Williams has been broken down mentally and emotionally in ways Finnie can’t fathom, which has affected Williams’ health and defeats the supposed purpose of the guardianship – Williams’ health.

“This is still a legal situation so there are things my aunt just can’t talk about. There are things that we as a family can’t talk about,” Finnie said. “But I think the thing that we can talk about is the fact that my aunt sounds great. I’ve seen her, in a very limited capacity, but I’ve seen her, we’re talking to her. This does not match an incapacitated person.”

Finnie continued, “The bottom line is my aunt hasn’t had, from what I understand, a medical evaluation to see if her rights can be restored. And it seems as though, instead of this guardian, Sabrina, working with her, it seems as though she’s made it difficult every which way for my aunt to be able to live any sort of healthy, independent life. It’s almost as if she doesn’t want my aunt to show that she’s healthy and independent because, as we know about these guardianships and as my aunt has said, the system is broken. Because the longer she’s under this guardianship, the longer they have the keys to her life for her personal, her financial, her emotional, everything.”

Finnie warns against confusing Williams’ “unique personality” and penchant to go off on tangents and then return to the initial topic as a cognitive issue. “Don’t try to twist who she is as if there’s something wrong with her,” said Finnie.

“We’re not asking for a whole lot and, I’m going to speak for myself, I’m not asking for a whole lot,” Finnie pleaded. “All I’m saying is treat the woman with dignity and give her the freedoms that she deserves.”

Williams and Finnie are asking supporters to continue using #FreeWendy to raise awareness of her plight under the guardianship and to sign a Change.org petition calling for Williams’ “freedom from conservatorship and contractual restrictions.”