Last year, the world learned about the shocking news surrounding former broadcaster, media personality, and writer Wendy Williams. “Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia.”

New York City Journalist Caitlin O’Kane stated in a CBS News article. “Williams had taken a leave from her talk show in 2021 while she dealt with health issues, and in 2023, after undergoing “a battery of medical tests,” she was diagnosed with the conditions, which affect language, communication behavior, and function,” according to a news release.

The world has its opinions about the Wendy Williams situation, and many people would say that she deserves it. However, here are my thoughts about how I look at Wendy Williams’s dementia diagnosis.

When it comes to Wendy Williams, my approach to the situation comes from a place of sympathetic empathy. It’s because I know what it’s like to have a family member diagnosed with dementia. Williams has frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia.

What I can tell you is that the process of adapting to change has most likely been rough on everyone, especially when you consider the person that Wendy Williams was before her diagnosis. It’s crucial to remember that Wendy Williams was a big TV personality whose livelihood depended on her spilling tea about celebrities and gossiping about Hollywood dramas.

While it did play to the benefit of advancing her career, it also caused her to gain unwanted enemies from the people she gossiped about on her talk show, The Wendy Williams Show. You can only imagine that when the news got out about Wendy Williams’s dementia diagnosis, she didn’t get much sympathetic support.

“While many viewers were sad to see Williams go, others believed that her new reality was her karma for her controversial commentary on various pop culture topics that she made a living off of for years.” stated staff writer Megan Quinn in a YourTango article. Wendy Williams is no perfect saint.

She may have had her days stirring up and spreading controversial wildfire, but when it comes to her severe illnesses, none of that matters anymore. The only thing that matters is a person’s well-being and making sure that they are being adequately cared for by a loved one or a trained professional.

The idea of holding someone’s past in front of them as a way of punishment, humiliation, or revenge is quite disturbing. Especially when a person is at their most vulnerable and can’t do anything to protect themselves adequately. In Wendy Williams’s case, her frontotemporal dementia puts her in a profound state of vulnerability where people can use her and take advantage of her for money.

It’s also important to remember that when people have dementia, they lose their memories of many things. They don’t just lose their memories of how to do things, but they can also lose memories of many events that took place in their lives as well as the people who are part of their lives. I’m thankful that during the beginning of my dad’s dementia, he was still able to remember and recognize some people in his life, including myself.

In Wendy Williams’s case, her dementia will most likely cause her to forget important events that happened in her life, and it will also most likely cause her to forget about some of the controversies she was involved in. For anyone to still have a personal quarrel with Wendy Williams to the point of not having sympathy or empathy is not only sad but also pointless.

Since Wendy will most likely not remember many of the controversies that took place in her life, therefore she’ll be unable to make a sincere, proper apology for her actions toward the people she wronged.

The Wendy Williams documentary titled ‘Where’s Wendy Williams?’ There have been reports stating that the documentary was inappropriate since it exploited Wendy Williams and her medical condition.

“Now, in a newly unsealed complaint, Williams’ guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, argues that due to her medical condition, Williams could not consent to the film and would not have approved of the way she was depicted,” stated Digital News Reporter Juliana Kim in an NPR article.

Even though I understand where people come from and agree with what they’re saying, I still do appreciate the creation of this documentary because it helps raise awareness about dementia from a realistic perspective. It does give insight into Wendy Williams’s progress as she adapts to her new life of having dementia.

When I saw the trailer alone, my heart ached for Wendy and her family because one of the scariest things about dementia is realizing that you may have a form of dementia as well as accepting the official diagnosis of dementia. In the trailer, I learned that Wendy Williams had spent her whole life wanting to be famous, and at the peak of her career, that’s when everything relating to her health started going downhill.

I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for Wendy’s family as they watched her slowly lose herself to something more profound than alcoholism.