It was this precise commitment to “the people” that kept Williams' loyal audience watching. When she commented on Spears’ conservatorship in June, the live reaction was so visceral that Williams even shocked herself, gasping in astonishment alongside her studio audience. While Williams has established a legendary reputation as a prodigious agitator of celebrity life, the impetus for this reaction seemed to have a different inflection point: It was rare for Williams to admit she was wrong about anything. She had been party to many indefensible moments over her years at the helm of a syndicated daytime talk show, including a series of particularly contemptible remarks regarding R. Kelly’s survivors. However, Williams had recently come out of her own experience under the glaring eye of the paparazzi flash lens: In March of 2019, she revealed to her audience that she had been living in a sober house on the heels of her 21-year marriage being torn apart by infidelity and a child out of wedlock. Williams had gone from shaping the story to being the story.She created a uniquely intimate space among her listeners, shattering the artifice of entertainment by offering up the nooks and crannies of her own life.
On The Wendy Williams Show, Williams stepped into focus, gossiping about herself alongside her subjects. She discussed her life with her son, her weekend watches, and doled out advice in her “Ask Wendy” segment, generating a special bond with her audience. She was merely ratcheting up a level of intimacy that she had already built with her audience by turning her biggest insecurities—and her detractors’ most consistent insults—into a way to connect with her viewership. Call her “a man”? Tell that to anyone other than the Jersey girl who just paid for liposuction, breast implants, and a tummy tuck, and maybe you’ll find someone who cares more. She was free and open about paying to get the image she wanted in a pre-BBL era, when plastic surgery wasn’t nearly as sanctioned within the Black community; having dealt with fatphobia and bullying as a child—an experience she would elaborate on in her daytime show with her viral “Wendy Whaleiams” moment—she found power in transformation and shared that with her fans, reclaiming the “drag queen” label hurled at her as a point of ridicule with pride. Hate her or love her, it is nigh impossible to overstate Williams’ transformative imprint in the media space. She conceptualized a niche in Black media of a polyrhythmic parasocial relationship with celebrity; one that was equally fawning and reproachful. In a 2021 interview with the New Yorker, CUNY professor and historian Tanisha C. Ford likened Williams’ relationship with gossip to Howard Stern’s relationship to the “shock jock,” in that they provided analogous templates for their successors to emulate as the premier innovators of the style in their field. “So much of the way that YouTubers frame their gossip segments is based on Wendy Williams,” Ford pointed out, alluding to the cottage industry of “drama” channels and content creators such as reality TV vloggers. “Wendy created the model for how you spill tea. And she was doing this in the 90s.”She conceptualized a niche in Black media of a polyrhythmic parasocial relationship with celebrity; one that was equally fawning and reproachful.
Now, it’s hard to find a talk radio program without a gossip segment. Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club has “The Rumor Report,” Hot 97 has “Flashing Lights.” Even Williams’ former nemesis Martinez admitted to Essence that she tuned into the talk show on occasion, observing that “[Wendy] has really mastered her lane. I find myself watching and laughing out loud. I don’t have any ill feelings toward her.” Much of the urban vlogosphere acknowledges their confessional style evolving from the popularity of Wendy Williams, with many of the popular channels faithfully following the ins and outs of her daytime show over the years for both commentary of pop culture as well as commentary over Wendy the person, even attending the show themselves. As Williams herself wrote in the opening line of her 2003 New York Times bestselling memoir, Wendy Got The Heat, “Bitches and niggas every day are practicing to do my shit.”Much of the urban vlogosphere acknowledges their confessional style evolving from the popularity of Wendy Williams, with many of the popular channels faithfully following the ins and outs of her daytime show.
Not all pop-culture consumers are empathetic to Williams’ recent hardships. There are some who have not been able to forgive Williams for her transgressions over the years, even going so far as to suggest that her health declined as karma for all of the reckless tête-à-têtes she’s provoked. A recent spat with beloved Instagram vegan persona Tabitha Brown led to many people believing that the media diva was bitter and projecting. It’s a common criticism leveled against her by detractors, who have had a strong distaste for her brash style of tell-all, stream-of-consciousness repartee at the expense of many celebrities’ personal lives. While there may be a strong temptation to frame this circumstance as Williams’ comeuppance, in reality, many radio legends who have been accused of comparable harms, if not greater, including Williams’ former mentee, Charlamagne, will still be revered for the work they have done in the media in the twilight of their careers. Williams deserves at least that much. Hate it or love it, her imitators could not succeed without her template.As a large Black woman who seemed unafraid to be vocal when it suited her, Williams would never be perceived as anyone’s damsel in distress, despite her publicly sharing limited details of her toxic marriage over the years.
DeGeneres was able to close her program out on her terms, largely because while the reports that had come out from her program had been shocking, she had long presented an image of inoffensive, Louisiana charm that belied the inner workings of the studio; that was never a privilege that was going to be offered to a statuesque 5’11” Wendy Williams with a shameless New Jersey accent. As a large Black woman who seemed unafraid to be vocal when it suited her, Williams would never be perceived as anyone’s damsel in distress, despite her publicly sharing limited details of her toxic marriage over the years, which she later revealed was emotionally abusive. There is a collective instinct to protect an all-American girl like Britney Spears from mistreatment; that instinct could never be afforded to Williams, in part because she is perceived as culpable for the media ecosystem she participated in, but also because Black women as just not offered nearly as much sympathy in the greater racial calculus of whose humanity is more valuable. Williams even remarked on this herself on the May 13th, 2021 episode of The Wendy Williams Show, stating “19 years on TV doesn’t change your life, it exposes you for the person you really are;” at the time, Williams was dismissed as piling onto a longtime ratings competitor as opposed to acknowledging her own mistreatment.Williams helped define the modern relationship between a radio host and its audience; the fruits of those decades of labor are assets that she is entitled to access and luxuriate in at her leisure. Any institutions or proxies seeking to restrict that should not be able use her recent health struggles or capitalize on her complex legacy to justify taking away her agency. As the case with Britney Spears has clearly shown, “concern” for someone’s best interests can quickly devolve into active harm by way of weaponized moral grandstanding—just take a look at how Spears’ current Instagram usage is being portrayed by the father of her children. “Either you are calling me crazy or the bravest woman you know,” Williams once quipped. The fact that Williams has been reduced to advocating for herself in a series of disconcerting Instagram posts as she navigates her post-television life is an offense that is far beneath the heft and reach of her legacy. Fans should be able to support her next steps without financial interference and having to plead her case in the court of public opinion. The Wendy Williams Show may be over, but she will always be a Hot Topic—and absent direct access to Williams’ medical team, Wells Fargo’s determinations of mental aptitude are about as speculative as cryptocurrency and should not serve as a barometer as to her ability to access her money. A recent cover story by the Hollywood Reporter purports to paint the picture of a team working to protect Williams’ best interests as her health deteriorated behind the scenes, but curiously kept mention of her ongoing fight to access her finances to a minimum, despite the restrictions being predicated on her alleged wellness. Perhaps if Williams were unencumbered by financial strain, we would get less discombobulated messaging about her return to media and she would be allowed to rest and recuperate from whatever accumulated factors that have taken their toll on her day-to-day health. In this circumstance, we can minimize the chance of history repeating itself as we remain spectators to Williams’ next phase in life.In the final episode of The Wendy Williams Show, guest host Sherri Shepherd gave Williams her flowers, effusing that “Wendy earned her title as the ‘Queen of All Media.’ If you think about it, Wendy Williams changed daytime talk with her unique take, her one-of-a-kind celebrity interviews, the signature ‘Ask Wendy’ segments and of course, y’all, her famous ‘How you doin’?’ Absolutely. And I wanna say, ‘Miss Wendy, you are an icon and you are loved by so many, so many.’” It is now the time to show that the statement was not made in vain, and that her contribution to the shift in media and pop culture—and the personal tax she paid for it—would not result in her being relegated to a social media joke in her twilight years, without the privacy, protection, and support that should be afforded to someone of her level of accomplishment. Offer Wendy Williams her just due; it is the least that she deserves.Shamira Ibrahim is a Brooklyn-based culture writer by way of Harlem, Canada, and East Africa. She explores identity, cultural production, and technology as a critic, reporter, profile writer, and essayist.Williams helped define the modern relationship between a radio host and its audience; the fruits of those decades of labor are assets that she is entitled to access and luxuriate in at her leisure.