Wendy Williams has had a tumultuous relationship with several of her family members through the years.
The former “Wendy Williams Show” host has weathered everything from a cheating scandal and divorce from Kevin Hunter Sr. to a public spat with her brother.
She also battled addiction and thyroid issues for many years, before revealing she was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia in early 2024.
Several of her family members, including sister Wanda and brother Tommy, have spoken out in support of her after her health began rapidly deteriorating.
Here’s everything to know about Wendy’s family history.
Wendy is the second child of Shirley and Thomas Williams Sr.
Her parents were highly accomplished with a total of three master’s degrees between them.
Her mother worked as a special education teacher while her dad was a school principal, and even became the first black school administrator in Red Bank, N.J.
Following race riots in Wendy’s hometown of Asbury Park, N.J., in the 1970s, Shirley and Thomas Sr. moved the family to Wayside, a mostly white suburb in Ocean Township.
The future TV icon and her two siblings were instructed to present “a good package,” she told The New Yorker in 2021.
While her older sister went on to become a lawyer and her little brother “could do no wrong,” Wendy appeased her parents by earning a degree from Northeastern University before pursuing a media career.
During a 2019 appearance on “The View,” Wendy revealed her parents had relocated to Florida.
However, the next time she spoke about her family members on-air, it was to make a sad announcement.
“My mom passed away many, many weeks ago,” she said during the first episode of the “Wendy Williams” show in 2021. “She’ll always be here. She’s squawking at me right now ’cause I requested confetti cannon ’cause that’s what she wanted,” Wendy added, noting that Shirley passed away “beautifully and peacefully.”
Wanda FinnieWendy’s older sister, Wanda, was always a high-achiever.
“More was expected of my big sister than of me,” Wendy told New York Magazine in 2005.
“And while she’s fabulous and she delivered all the goods, I ended up being fabulous, too, and delivering all the goods.”
Wanda now works at a Miami-based philanthropic organization that helps provide affordable housing and life skills to the most at-risk members of the community.
“Wanda has a career dedicated to working for the best interest of children, as an attorney, executive leader, educator, mentor and manager,” her LinkedIn page reads.
“In these varied capacities, she has been an advocate for policy and change at state and local levels on issues that ensure protection, fairness and opportunity for our most vulnerable population.”
She is also a mother of two to daughter Alex Finnie and a second child whose identity has not been made public.
Thomas Williams Jr.Wendy’s younger brother Tommy, who is also based in Miami and has been married to his wife for over 25 years, previously alleged that the daytime talk show host didn’t attend their mother’s funeral.
“The focus never seemed to have gotten back to family and particularly my dad. And that’s the travesty in all of this,” he said in a 2023 interview with The Sun.
“She’s caught up in what everyone else is caught up in, how her life is panning out. Just be a family member, just be a daughter, but I guess she’s not going to be either,” he went on.
“I guess she’s going to be a show host, but a nice role would be a daughter – because our parents have done everything for us. That’s the painful part of it all and it is what it is. But it’s not slowing his vitality down, or his zest for life and joy,” he concluded.
Nevertheless, the two seemed to have reconciled a couple of months later as he shared an Instagram video of Wendy relaxing on a boat.
“Family’s everything, believe that,” Tommy said in the April 2023 social media clip. “We gonna be alright. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes.”
Bert GirigorieWendy was married to her first husband, Bert Girigorie, for less than one year.
The pair met while working at a New York City radio station and dated for two years before saying “I do” in 1994.
They were married for just five months when they separated, and officially called it quits in 1995.
Girigorie, who is now a “sales & marketing professional” based in North Carolina per his Twitter profile, spoke out about the tumultuous marriage in 2019.
“It was very bizarre. She just turned into a different person. I don’t know what was going on,” he told RadarOnline at the time, noting he was “at a loss” over Wendy’s bizarre “behavior.”
“I didn’t understand a lot of things that she did. I didn’t understand what her motivations were,” he added.
Kevin HunterWendy met her second husband, Kevin Hunter, in 1994, and the pair dated for about three years before tying the knot.
During their marriage, she made name for herself as a radio personality and by 2008, she was launching her own primetime talk show, “The Wendy Williams Show,” which Hunter co-executive produced.
Despite their successful business ventures, there was trouble in paradise behind closed doors.
Just a few years into the marriage, after their son was born in 2000, Wendy caught Hunter talking on the phone to his mistress.
Though she chose to forgive him, it wasn’t the last time he would cheat on her.
In April 2019, Williams confirmed she filed for divorce from Hunter after he fathered a child with another woman.
“Kevin had a major indiscretion that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. An indiscretion that I will not deal with,” Williams told The New York Times.
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“I never thought that I would be in this position. I’m a very forgiving person, but there’s one thing that I could never be a part of, and that one thing happened.”
She later described her ex as a “serial cheater” during an interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show in 2021.
Hunter, for his part, said he was “not proud” of his actions.
“I am going through a time of self-reflection and am trying to right some wrongs,” he said in a statement at the time of the divorce filing.
Their split was finalized in January 2020.
Kevin Hunter Jr.Wendy gave birth to her first, and only, child in August 2000.
She welcomed Hunter Jr. with her ex-husband following multiple miscarriages.
“I fought tooth and nail to be a mother,” she said during the 2015 PBS special “American Masters: The Women’s List.”
“I suffered several miscarriages including two at five months. That’s when you have the clothes already picked out, the nursery is already painted. They ask you do you want a funeral or do you want the cremation?”
Though her mini-me son has appeared at events with her throughout his life, he’s largely remained out of the spotlight.
However, in 2024, he made a rare appearance in the Lifetime documentary, “Where is Wendy Williams?” to discuss his mother’s health woes.
“My mom has done a great job making it seem like everything is OK always, but in reality, there’s something wrong going on,” he said in the trailer.
Hunter Jr. is currently a university student studying in Miami.
