‘Where Is Wendy Williams?’ EPs Speak Out About Making the Doc & If She’s Seen It (Exclusive)

A Wendy Williams documentary aired on Lifetime over the weekend, and now the executive producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson are opening up about the project to “Extra’s” Billy Bush.

“Where Is Wendy Williams?” started shooting before Wendy’s diagnosis of “frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia.” She was later admitted to a facility and given a court-appointed guardian.

Wendy’s guardian tried to stop the airing of the documentary, but was shut down by the court.

Erica and Mark explain why they continued to shoot the doc in the state that Wendy was in.

Hanson explained, “It was important for us to be able to shed light on what the reality of Wendy’s life was under this care… we were concerned about her being in that apartment, being alone, clearly drinking a lot… she was really isolated and we were really concerned about her, that one of the reasons why we stayed and really kept pushing… It is scary to think of if we weren’t there at times.”

Ford added, “At a certain point we were more concerned about what would happen to her if we stopped filming than if we continued.”

Billy asked, “You started out filming something else and then it became what it is, right?”

Mark confirmed, “Yeah, the initial intention was to film her comeback. To see Wendy resurrect her career and get her life back on track and everyone was so hopeful and excited to document that, but it gradually became apparent that that wasn’t going to be the story here.”

Instead, Wendy’s situation declined and her health and financial decisions were taken over by a guardianship.

Billy asked, “Why is no family member allowed to care for Wendy?” pointing out, “It’s a guardian that nobody knows.”

Mark said, “That’s a huge, raging question that we don’t know the answer to because all of the court proceedings are completely dark and they’re held from public view. So, the family can’t even ask for the paperwork to understand why they were removed or why they weren’t allowed to be a part of the guardianship because those proceedings are not public.”

Erica continued, “I just want to stress that for me and for everyone on our little team, this was a labor of love and all of us, like millions of Americans, many of the people on the team personally had dealt with dementia, in their family or addictions. So even though it’s a very intimate personal story of Wendy, I really believe it’s a universal story that millions of people can relate to and it’s not comfortable and it is painful at times, but I feel like we did shed light on really important story for Wendy and how she was or wasn’t getting the care she needed.”

Ford described the filming of the doc, saying, “All of the things you see in the documentary were happening in real time, completely fly on the wall… and I think everyone was a little confused and shocked as it went along… ‘How can this be?… How can Wendy Williams be in this situation when she has all these resources and all these people around her, yet she’s struggling?’”

Billy wondered, “What was her level of cognition when you last spoke with her?”

Hanson said, “When we last spoke to her, that was right before she went into a treatment center or facility… she really had declined at that point. So, she was not doing well and that’s why I was, honestly, we were all very relieved that she was able to go to a treatment center and now we know that it was for cognitive issues as well as for addiction, at least as our understanding.”

Billy asked if Wendy has seen the doc and Mark replied, “We have not heard any feedback and we cannot say for a fact whether she’s seen it or not. We weren’t able to screen it for her because we weren’t aware of where she was and couldn’t contact her at the time when that would have been appropriate.”

She did put out a message on Friday saying she was “overwhelmed” by the fan response, but needed “personal space.”