Wendy Williams' Guardian Slams A&E Networks in New Complaint, Claims TV Star Only Received $82K from Lifetime Doc (Exclusive)

The complaint accuses the network of "willfully taking advantage of a severely impaired, incapacitated person" and suggests "profits from the program should go to W.W.H., who will need significant funding to provide proper medical care and supervision the rest of her life."

Wendy Williams' guardian has filed a new complaint against Lifetime's parent company, A&E Television Networks, Lifetime Entertainment Services, EOne Productions, Creature Films and its executive producer Mark Ford.

The guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed the suit in New York Supreme Court on Monday, Sept. 16, roughly seven months after the premiere of Lifetime's shocking documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?, which explores Williams' life under her guardianship. It aired on Feb. 24 and 25 after Morrissey unsuccessfully tried to halt the premiere date in court.

"As is patently obvious from the very first few minutes of the Program itself, W.W.H. was highly vulnerable and clearly incapable of consenting to being filmed, much less humiliated and exploited," the 75-page complaint alleges. "When the Guardian discovered that Defendants’ true intentions were to portray W.W.H.in a highly demeaning and embarrassing manner, she immediately sought to protect and to preserve her dignity. But the defendants fought to move ahead... without a valid contract and released without the Guardian's consent."

Since May 2022, the former Wendy Williams Show host, 60, has been living under a legal court-ordered guardianship that oversees both her finances and health. And for a year and four months, she's been living in an unknown facility to address cognitive issues after being diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in May 2023.

In a statement on Feb, 2024, her care team at Weill Cornell Medical Center revealed her diagnoses publicly and said that Williams received numerous tests after “she began to lose words, act erratically at times and have difficulty understanding financial transactions.”

Related: Lifetime Says It Will Still Air Where Is Wendy Williams? Documentary Despite Lawsuit

In the new filing Morrissey — along with famed civil rights litigator Roberta Kaplan (who won a $83.3 million jury verdict in her representation of E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trump) and her partner Tim Martin of Kaplan Martin LLP (who successfully argued United States v. Windsor, which required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage) have taken on Wendy’s case — claim the network and defendants took advantage of Williams and should pay her for her medical care and supervision for the rest of her life.

"Not surprisingly, the public reacted with disgust and revulsion at Defendants’ blatant and vicious exploitation of W.W.H," the complaint continues. "By willfully taking advantage of a severely impaired, incapacitated person, Defendants have made millions on W.W.H.’s back, while W.W.H. has received a paltry $82,000" from the documentary.

"This case arises from the brutally calculated, deliberate actions of powerful and cravenly opportunistic media companies working together with a producer to knowingly exploit W.W.H., an acclaimed African-American entertainer who, tragically, suffers from dementia and, as a result, has become cognitively impaired, permanently disabled, and legally incapacitated," the complaint adds. "Eager to sensationalize and profit from W.W.H.’s cognitive and physical decline, Defendants took advantage of W.W.H in the cruelest, most obscene way possible for their own financial gain, in a manner that truly shocks the conscience."

It further alleges that the "defendants not only deliberately destroyed" Williams' "credibility and image," but did so for their own financial gain. It also notes that Williams was the "laughingstock and drunkard implicitly responsible for her own continued suffering" and numerous photos of her in a wheelchair with her legs spread were dredged up all over the Internet, while also displaying her on camera with a nearly bald head — something she would have "never, ever consented and allowed."

PEOPLE reached out to Lifetime Entertainment Services, EOne Productions, A&E Television Networks, Ford, Selby and Morrissey’s attorney for comment.

“As our complaint shows in painful and excruciating detail, A&E, Lifetime and Mark Ford viciously and shamelessly exploited Wendy Williams for their own profit while she was obviously incapacitated and suffering from dementia," Kaplan Martin LLP and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, attorneys for Wendy Williams’ guardian alleged in a statement to PEOPLE. "Their behavior truly shocks the conscience, and they should not be permitted to profit from her suffering. We are proud to represent her guardian in holding them accountable.”

When the Lifetime documentary crew began filming in August 2022, they claim it set out to follow Williams’ comeback as she prepared to launch a new podcast. But the film evolved into something entirely different, as the crew captured Williams (who is listed as an executive producer on the project) in the throes of alcohol addiction and struggles with health issues including Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that can cause bulging eyes, and lymphedema, a condition that causes swelling in her feet.

The four-part docuseries also captured her mental health decline, memory issues and her inability to effectively communicate. But as the complaint alleges, after Morrissey was appointed by the court, Will Selby, a social media personality and jeweler, became Williams' manager and allegedly explained he would have full creative control over the program. (Selby couldn't be reached for comment.)

"When the Guardian asked Mr. Selby what he meant by 'full creative control,' he is claimed to have said, 'If I do not want it in the film, they will take it out.'" The suit also alleges that executive producer Mark Ford and his crew were aware of "Williams severe and incapacitating cognitive and physical impairments" and insisted on "filming her anyway."

"There was a guardianship in place the entire time we were filming with Wendy that was court appointed to be overseeing her finances and her medical care," Ford told PEOPLE in Feb. 2024. "So I think the larger question here is about what can happen to someone under a legal guardianship if the family is separated from them and there isn't somebody there on a daily basis checking in on their well-being."

He continued: "Wendy's attorneys and the guardianship attorneys were consulted and signed off on the project. Once we started seeing the truth of the situation, we couldn't ignore it. And the film had to go in the direction of the truth."

Related: Where Is Wendy Williams? Producers Say They Continued Filming Star amid Her Struggles 'Out of Concern' (Exclusive)

However, the new suit claims that Williams' signature on January 25, 2023 doesn't appear to be genuine and there is no evidence she signed their contract. "In all events, W.W.H. was incapacitated and unable to consent at the time the Contract or its amendments were executed, even if she had signed it (which she did not)," it read.

The complaint also alleges that guardian Morrissey was not involved in the program or the contract and was not shown a copy of the contract until months after it was purportedly executed. Morrissey also claims that the defendants continued to reach Williams after filming wrapped, but she refused to allow further exploitation.

“Not before, but after filming began, Defendant EOne, with the assistance and input of Defendants Ford, Creature Films, and A&E, eventually drafted a one-sided “on-camera talent agreement” (“the Contract”) in an attempt to legitimize their unsavory and exploitative project," the complaint alleges. "This agreement was submitted after W.W.H. had already been filmed by Defendants while she was clearly disheveled, not mentally present, and confused. No person who witnessed W.W.H. in these circumstances could possibly have believed that she was capable of consenting to an agreement to film, or to the filming itself."

The complaint further alleges that the defendants falsely insisted to the press that Williams had "executive produced" the doc. The complaint claims that Williams had never saw the trailer or series before it aired, or ever endorsed them.

"Indeed, none of the Defendants ever gained the Guardian’s consent for W.W.H.’s participation in the film, and there was no way W.W.H. could have consented," the complaint continued. "Pursuant to the orders issued by the Court in the Guardianship Proceedings, the Guardian was not permitted to discuss W.W.H. with Defendants. The Guardian explained this to Mr. Selby. The Guardian also told Mr. Selby that she, and perhaps even the Justice in the Guardianship Proceeding, would need to see and approve the final product before it could air."

Furthermore, the complaint says that Morrissey discussed with EOne's in-house attorneys that no footage of Williams would be released unless an agreement could be reached and approved, which was supposed to portray Williams in a positive light. The suit contains photos that were apparently sent to the guardian on set, that show Williams professionally made up, well-dressed and appearing happy.

"No one viewing these photographs could have possibly imagined what Mr. Ford and his crew were really planning or what the finished product would depict. Had the Guardian known that Mr. Ford and his crew were taunting, goading, and tormenting W.W.H., she would have sought to stop filming immediately," the suit alleged. It also states that no consent was ever given by Morrissey for Williams to travel to California for filming or to film with other members of her family, except her father.

Related: Where Is Wendy Williams? Producers Say They Continued Filming Star amid Her Struggles 'Out of Concern' (Exclusive)

Showrunner Erica Hansen previously told PEOPLE that: "We had no idea that [Wendy] had dementia when we started filming [in August 2022], or we wouldn't have filmed," she said. "I think the documentary really illustrates our journey of trying to understand what was happening. It sheds light on that period of time in Wendy's life where she was under care of a guardianship and living a very isolated life in New York, in that apartment."

Back in January 2022, Williams’s family, including her son Kevin Hunter, Jr., 24, with ex-husband Kevin Hunter, 51 came under fire online when Wells Fargo froze the star’s accounts after her financial adviser at the time alleged that she was of “unsound mind,” according to Williams’ court filings. "

The bank successfully petitioned a New York court to have Williams placed under temporary financial guardianship, reportedly because she was at risk of financial exploitation due to cognitive issues. "Wells Fargo employees had documented a pattern of unusual and disturbing events concerning W.W.H.’s welfare and finances which led them to fear that she had already been taken advantage of and would be the subject of financial abuse in the future," the new complaint says. Eventually, Morrissey was awarded a permanent guardianship.

Related: Wendy Williams Can't Access 'Several Million Dollars' from Wells Fargo, Bank Claims She's Being 'Exploited'

Williams’ son came under scrutiny when reports of a large sum of money taken out of her account which raised flags at the bank. A spokesperson for the financial services company has since shared with PEOPLE: "This matter was conducted under seal. Any claims against Wells Fargo have been dismissed."

When it comes to Williams’ son, he spoke out in the documentary vehemently denying allegations of exploiting her about the rumors against him. Kevin shared that his mom has always spent large amounts due to her extravagant lifestyle and that for the time she was in his care in Florida, she signed off on all financial decisions. “I’ve never taken [money] without her consent,” he said in the film. 

The documentary reportedly attracted an average of 1.2 million viewers per night for Lifetime and over 6 million viewers across all platforms the weekend of its debut, according to the suit. Morrissey argues that if Ford, his crew or the defendants were genuinely concerned about Williams' well-being and safety, they could have easily chosen the Wells Fargo path, which would be to "stop the exploitation of W.W.H," Instead, Morrissey notes in the suit: "They kept filming, trolling for the most embarrassing and shocking footage to titillate and sell to their audiences in order to generate more profit for themselves."

The suit claims the host is now suffering "cruel, debilitating, and progressive neurogenerative diseases that result in significant and readily apparent behavioral changes and gradually rob their victims of the ability to communicate at all."  

Related: Wendy Williams Confirms Ex Kevin Hunter Has a Daughter

Morrissey insists that the profits from the show should go to Williams, who will need significant funding to provide for proper medical care and supervision for the rest of her life. The guardian seeks to recover for the damage caused by defendants, including the "unjust profits they received by exploiting W.W.H. in her vulnerable state."

The complaint also asks the court to stop A&E from any further airing, sales or release of the documentary.

It's been almost three years since Wendy Williams asked her final "How you doin'?" on TV, and since then, the larger-than-life personality has remained mostly quiet as rumors have swirled about her well-being. Recently, Williams — accompanied her son, Kevin Hunt Jr. — were spotted at the holistic store Bolingo Balance in Newark, N.J., on Monday, Aug. 19. The outing marks the first time the television personality has been spotted since March of last year.

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