Wendy Williams just wants her money.
The on-hiatus talk show host, 57, addressed her battle with Wells Fargo over control of her finances, which have been frozen for two months amid allegations that Williams is an “incapacitated person” in need of a guardianship. Williams also claimed her former manager, Bernie Young, who’s reportedly trying to become her guardian, used her credit card, without authorization, to pay legal fees he’s incurred to put her into the guardianship she doesn’t want.
“My thing is that I’ve been asking questions about my money,” Williams said in the video posted to the new Instagram account she created, separate from the Wendy Williams Show. “And when I began asking questions about my money, suddenly, Lori Schiller has got no response regarding my money. I want my money. This is not fair.”
Schiller is Williams’s now former financial advisor at Wells Fargo. In February, the bank filed court documents claiming that Williams is “of unsound mind” and the “victim of undue influence and financial exploitation.” The bank is seeking a temporary guardian to ensure that Williams’s affairs are being properly handled. Williams hasn’t had access to her money since, including to make mortgage payments.
In Williams’s video, she said Wells Fargo had no answers regarding her money. “This is, this is not fair. Lori Schiller and Wells Fargo have this guardianship petition about keeping me away from my money. This is not right. And you know this is not fair.” (Schiller and a Wells Fargo bank rep did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.)
Williams then called out Young, whom she hired as her manager in 2019 after parting ways professionally and personally with now-ex-husband Kevin Hunter. Williams reportedly then fired him, as well and crisis publicist Howard Bragman, in February.
“This guy named Bernie Young — I know for a fact that Bernie Young used my American Express card to hire an attorney to file a petition against me,” Williams said. “That was done with my American Express card. Bernie Young, you’re no good.”
Young has not responded to request for comment. The Sun reports that Young — who, again, was fired by Williams — quietly “filed a petition for guardianship over Wendy about two weeks ago in a sealed case,” including gaining “control over her Wells Fargo bank accounts.”
Williams also called out an unnamed “doctor … [who] had medical information about me that I never even got.” She claims the doctor, who she no longer uses, sent the medical report “to Lori Schiller” — without Willams’s consent — and it was used to build the case for the guardianship, Williams claims.
Yahoo Entertainment has seen a copy of two alleged unauthorized credit card charges on Williams’s card from January as the fight over Williams’s finances began. Each charge was for $10,000. One was made to a NY law firm specializing in health care law — the attorney Williams claims Young hired to file the petition against her. A second charge was to a NYC-based psychiatrist — the doctor who reportedly contacted Schiller about Williams’s health, which is the basis for the guardianship case.
“Wells Fargo has used all this stuff to create the guardianship over me,” Williams said. And, “The New York Court System is … without evidence … based on what Wells Fargo is doing” keeping her money from her. She said the situation was similar to a NYC court case in which the guardian for John L. Phillips Jr., known as the “kung fu judge,” improperly misused finances and had to repay $403,000.
“Again, all I wanna know is: Where is my money?” said Williams, who earned an estimated $15 million a year (at least prior to her work hiatus). “Lori Schiller, Bernie Young and Wells Fargo, please let me have access to my money. This is not right. And, again, this is not fair.”
Williams has had a challenging few years amid health struggles and her high-profile divorce. In September. she was too sick, from her Graves’ disease, to host her successful, eponymous talk show. Guest hosts filled in, but it was announced in February the show would end after 14 seasons. Sherri Shepherd — who filled in as a guest-host — will headline a new syndicated show in the fall that will take over the time periods held by Williams’s show on Fox owned-and-operated stations.
However, Williams recently said that once she figures out this mess with her finances, she’ll be ready to host her show again.
