Wendy Williams’ Son Reveals How Alcohol Affected His Mom’s Dementia Diagnosis

Published: February 28, 2024

Wendy Williams’ Son Reveals How Alcohol Affected His Mom’s Dementia Diagnosis

By Movieguide® Contributor

In the two-part documentary WHERE IS WENDY WILLIAMS, the former talk-show host’s son, Kevin Hunter Jr., explained that she has alcohol-induced dementia.

“[Doctors] basically said that because she was drinking so much, it was starting to affect her headspace and her brain,” Hunter, 23, said in the February 25 episode of the series. “So, I think they said it was alcohol-induced dementia.”

“Over the past few years, questions have been raised at times about Wendy’s ability to process information, and many have speculated about Wendy’s condition, particularly when she began to lose words, act erratically at times, and have difficulty understanding financial transactions,” a representative for Williams said before the series released.

In 2023, Williams was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. These came two years after she dealt with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune system disorder, and lymphedema.

Williams said in the documentary, “I care for my family a lot. Kevin hates that I care for liquor. He’s very important to me.”

Since Williams’ started to show dementia symptoms, her family has not been well informed about her health issues. This is because Williams has a guardian, and her medical team has not been providing much information either.

Currently, “the family agrees that Williams appears to be doing much better now that she is receiving treatment in an undisclosed facility from which she calls them weekly. They remain concerned with their lack of access and communication,” PEOPLE reported.

Per Geo News, Williams’ medical team announced that Williams still has some independence, is getting the care she needs, and still has her sense of humor.

Movieguide® reported on Bruce Willis, who was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia:

“When doctors or media talk about dementia, they’ll say ‘Alzheimer’s and other dementias.’ So FTD is the other dementia, and let me tell you something about that disease: it is real, it is out there, and it will bring you to your knees,” [Willis’s wife] said.

“I think that is an absolute disservice and absolutely disrespectful for these ‘other dementias’ just to be put in that category, I think it’s really important for us to know what these diseases are,” she continued. “I do not want to see this disease and out ‘other dementias’ swept under the rug anymore.”

…“Dementia is hard,” she told the TODAY show. “It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is.”