With fans, friends and colleagues still reeling from the shocking revelation that Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with aphasia and dementia, the Lifetime documentary chronicling her struggles since leaving her talk show is adding more questions to the conversation.
First and foremost, viewers are wondering if “Where Is Wendy Williams?” is too exploitative. In addition to showing Williams in a very vulnerable state, the two-part film also details her family’s issues with the court-appointed guardian who now cares for the media personality. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the project’s producer, Mark Ford, defends the documentary and discusses the film crew’s relationship with Wendy.
The original plan was to follow Wendy as she mounted a comeback with a podcast, but of course, all that changed as the talk show host’s health began to decline. She was battling the autoimmune illness Graves’ Disease, Lymphedema and alcoholism. The doc suddenly took on a different tone, which raised questions about how much of her life the cameras should show?
“It was tough every single day, and there were conversations that we had, all of us, throughout the documentary,” Ford said. “There was no guarantee we would air this documentary if we weren’t happy with the content that we ultimately got and the editorial direction that we landed upon, which was the family’s point of view and illustrating what can happen when one of your family members is put into a guardianship outside of your control. We just happened to be there every day seeing the reality of this situation, and we just put the camera on it and captured it.”
Ford explained how Williams “became very close with our producers” and that “There was a real emotional connection that the project gave her,” which is why he felt the cameras were so important to her journey. While the film is definitely Wendy’s story, it’s not lost on the producer that this issue affects a lot of families that don’t have famous loved ones.
“Honestly, it got to a point where we were more worried about what would happen to Wendy if we stopped filming then if we continued,” Ford said. “Because we ultimately knew that we have the control and we can just not air this if it can’t be moved into a positive, redeeming direction for her where we can help Wendy and hopefully other people. And that discovery came much later in the process, how universal this story is and how many thousands of families in America are going through this exact same thing, except they’re not related to Wendy Williams, who has this massive platform.”
Though her identity isn’t revealed in the doc, Williams’ guardian obviously plays a major role in the project. Other than communicating with Wendy’s manager, Will Selby, to sign off on filming, Ford claims the documentary team had no contact with the guardian.
“There were incredibly bad days, and there’s a lot of footage we shot that no one will ever see. But we felt like it was important to illustrate the difficult process that Wendy and her family were going through, and frankly what can happen to someone if they’re under the care of a guardian,” he said. “I think the family thought, and we all thought, ‘Shouldn’t there be somebody here more often? Shouldn’t there be somebody filling a refrigerator and checking in on her on a daily basis?’ None of those things were happening.”
In the end, Ford feels it’s their responsibility as documentary filmmakers to show how this underrepresented issue is affecting real families, and Williams’ story is the entry point. As difficult as the film is to get through, he thinks it can lead to important conversations.
“I do hope people stick with it to the end, because then you’ll see what the intention ultimately became, which was that Wendy’s suffering and the family’s suffering is not in vain. That there’s a message here that is universal, and it’s important for people to hear and, again, that echoes the experience of thousands of other families under this guardianship system,” Ford said. “Documentary filmmaking is always a tricky thing. This project never would’ve aired if we couldn’t steer it toward the hopeful ending or the ending that we have here with the family engaging and telling their story. We never would’ve aired something that didn’t have Wendy’s best interests and her family’s best interests at heart.”
“Where Is Wendy Williams?” airs March 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime, is available to rent or buy on digital release and is now streaming on mylifetime.com and the Lifetime app.