Wendy Williams Says “I Want Out” in Her First Public Sighting in Six Months

Wendy Williams told a photographer “I want out” during a rare public outing in New York, her first sighting since February.

She was walking through the city on Wednesday, August 19, carrying shopping bags in a black T-shirt, high-rise denim shorts, and black boots with a red handbag. A male companion was with her, and the two were talking as they moved down the block. A paparazzo asked what she had to tell fans about what she is going through. Those three words were the answer.

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She has been under a court-ordered guardianship in New York since May 2022. A guardianship is a legal arrangement where a court decides a person cannot manage their own affairs and appoints someone else to make decisions for them, covering money, medical care, or both. In Wendy’s case it covers both.

It started with her bank. Wells Fargo froze her accounts and went to a New York Supreme Court judge, describing her as an incapacitated person who needed a temporary guardian to make sure her affairs were handled properly, and saying she was the victim of undue influence and financial exploitation. The court agreed. Attorney Sabrina Morrissey was appointed her guardian, and four years later she still holds that role.

Wendy has objected to the arrangement from the beginning. In 2022 she told Good Morning America that she did not want anyone else handling her accounts, that she wanted all of the money she had worked her entire life for, and that she does not lie, cheat, or steal. During a call-in interview with The View in March 2025, she rejected the incapacity finding outright, saying she had chosen to get an independent evaluation and that she does not have incapacitation.

The medical record underneath the case has not held still either. Her care team announced in 2024 that she had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia, two conditions that affect language and behavior. Then in November 2025, a neurologist reviewed her after additional testing and concluded she does not have frontotemporal dementia. Her team said at the time that they would file legal documents.

She also has Graves‘ disease, an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the thyroid. She disclosed it publicly in 2018. It affects energy, weight, and appearance, including the eyes, which is worth knowing given how much of the commentary under these photos is about how she looks rather than what she said.

What has not changed is her legal status. There is no public timeline for the guardianship ending, and no indication a court has scheduled anything that would change it. Wendy has been saying the same thing for four years, to a morning show, to a daytime panel, and now to a photographer on the sidewalk.