Wendy Williams Claims Her 2 Cats Were Taken Away in 'Prison'-Like Treatment Facility: 'They're Gone'

Mar. 15, 2025

Wendy Williams in 2022.Photo:Calvin Gayle

Calvin Gayle

Wendy Williamsis revealing she no longer lives with her two cats, Chit Chat and My Way.

On Jan. 16, the former talk show host, 60, shared details about living at a wellness facility in New York City during a rare interview onThe Breakfast Clubradio show.

“I am not cognitively impaired but I feel like I am in prison,” Williams said. “I’m in this place with people who are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s. …. These people, there’s something wrong with these people here on this floor. I am clearly not.”

Wendy Williams visits SiriusXM Studios on September 6, 2018 in New York City.Santiago Felipe/Getty

Santiago Felipe/Getty

In addition to the loneliness and isolation Williams experiences in the facility, she claimed she does not have thecats she rescued in 2019.

“I no longer have my cats," Williams said. “I had no idea that they actually took my cats. I wanted my cats with me, you understand?”

“I talked to my guardian person and she told me that the cats are gone,” Williams said of her court-appointed guardian Sabrina Morrissey. “I said, ‘You mean they are gone gone gone gone gone?’ Chit Chat and My Way, my twin cats, they’re gone.”

A source familiar with Williams' situation tells PEOPLE, “due to her dementia she forgot about the cats and at one point she said she doesn’t give a f— about them. Now she wants them back.”

Morrissey has not responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

In May 2022, Williams entered acourt-ordered guardianshipand in September 2022, Williamsentered a wellness facilityto help mange her “overall health issues.” Hermedical team announced in February 2024that Williams had been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) the previous year.

During Williams' interview with host Charlamagne tha God, she detailed what kind of electronics she can use in the facility.

“I want my phone,” Williams said, adding that she only has a device with controlled settings. “I can call you, but you can’t call me, you understand what I’m saying? I don’t even know what kind of phone this is that I have. All I’m saying is that when I call you you, if you don’t call me back, you can’t call me back. I can’t I can’t sit on the phone and look at things and scroll through things — I can’t do that.”

She said she has no other devices that would connect her to the outside world: “I do not have a laptop, I don’t have an iPad. My life is my life is my goddamn life.”

Wendy Williams attends the 2019 NYWIFT Muse Awards on December 10, 2019 in New York City.Lars Niki/Getty

Lars Niki/Getty

Later in the episode, Williams grew emotional at the thought of the phone she does have ever being taken away. “What if they take my phone I won’t be able to talk to anybody?”

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Williams revealed that she is not allowed to leave the facility when she wants, either, claiming that the elevators are locked and visitors are restricted.Breakfast Clubpersonality Lauren LaRosa recalled a time when she went to visit Williams and, despite Williams speaking to the front desk to give permission for LaRosa to come up, they would not let her.

“Listen, this system is broken, this system that I am in. This system has falsified a lot,” she said, noting she does not have access to her money. “For the last three years, I have been caught up in the system.”

Williams' attorney Roberta Kaplan told PEOPLE in a statement that the former talk show host “suffers from frontal lobe dementia, a degenerative brain disease that has no cure.”

“As a result, a state court found her to be legally incapacitated, meaning that she is not capable of making legal and financial decisions on her own,” said Kaplan, who is suing A&E, Lifetime and the producers of the 2024 docuseriesWhere Is Wendy Williams?on behalf of Williams. “Unfortunately, because of her diagnosis, Wendy’s condition will only get worse with time and she will require care for the rest of her life. But as anyone who has had a family member with dementia knows, Wendy has both good days and bad days. It is truly a shame that there is so much voyeuristic attention to this right now, since it only leads to the same kinds of exploitation that we saw in the so-called documentary, as alleged in our complaint.”

source: people.com