Don Lemon Weighs In on Wendy Williams’ Mental State After Interview [Video]

Following Williams’ appearance on his podcast, Lemon provided his “assessment” of the iconic TV personality, discussing whether she seemed “incapacitated” or “lucid.” He also touched on her diagnoses of dementia and aphasia.

Don Lemon is sharing his thoughts on Wendy Williams’ health following their conversation on his show.

On Thursday, Williams, 60, appeared on Charlamagne that God’s The Breakfast Club, before she was interviewed by Lemon, her longtime friend, on his podcast, The Don Lemon Show.

During both appearances, the legendary television personality — who was put under a guardianship in 2022 and was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia — slammed her conservatorship, comparing it to a “prison” while arguing that she’s not “incapacitated.”

Following his conversation with Williams, Lemon gave his “assessment” of the talk show host, explaining that while she doesn’t seem like the same person she was “back in the day,” he doesn’t believe she sounded incapacitated or that she has dementia or aphasia. According to Lemon, Williams appeared “lucid.”

“This is my assessment. Does Wendy sound like the Wendy Williams back in the day when I was on her program? No, she doesn’t,” he said. “Does Wendy Williams sound like the Wendy Williams that visited me at my house and then would call me randomly? No. Does Wendy Williams sound lucid to me? Yes. Does Wendy Williams sound like she has dementia? No. Does she sound like she has aphasia or any of that stuff or that she’s incapacitated? No.”

Lemon, 58, stressed that while he’s “not a medical professional” or a “mental health expert,” he was able to “carry on a conversation” with Williams.

“She can recall details from times that we spent together. She did it in the Charlamagne interview,” he said, adding that he’s also “not as sharp” as he was “back in the day.”

“But do I think that she sounds incapacitated? No. I mean, can she be in control of her own funds and all of that? I think there are ways that you can work with her to make sure that she is being financially smart and savvy and … a way to handle this to make sure that she is taken care of financially for the rest of her life.”

Lemon said he’s not sure if Williams “needs to be in a facility.”

“I don’t know what her issues are,” he admitted. “I don’t know about addiction issues, reportedly, allegedly. I don’t know about those things. I don’t know about that now … in this moment. I’m not there. I only spoke to her this morning, but she sounds lucid,” he reiterated.

Lemon also explained that he doesn’t understand why Williams “isn’t with her family,” before noting that her court-appointed guardian, Sabrina Morrisey, “has not spoken.”

“Is the guardian protecting her from something that we don’t know? I don’t know. Nobody knows,” he added.

Ultimately, Lemon said that he believes Williams’ loved ones should be in her life.

“If you are isolated and you’re not around people that you love or care about you, who have a personal affection or affinity for you, then it messes with your head,” he said. “And I think everyone deserves to be with the people they love, so I think that they should be able to work that out or at least to be near somehow.”

Williams Slams Guardianship As a ‘Prison,’ Claims She’s Not ‘Incapacitated’

During her conversation with Lemon, Williams described her life under her guardianship as “ridiculous” and like a “prison.”

Williams — who currently lives in a wellness facility in New York City — criticized her current situation under her conservatorship, including her guardian, Sabrina Morrisey.

“My life is ridiculous,” she told Lemon. “I’ve been with this guardian person for three years. For three years of my life … I’m isolated. I feel like I’m in prison. I can’t go out. All I can do is look at the window.”

Williams said that she wants to be with her father for his 94th birthday, but noted that “anytime” she goes out, she has to be accompanied by Morrisey.

As for the wellness facility she’s living in, she called it an “old age home.”

“The people that live here are in their 90s and their 80s and their 70s and, I don’t know, maybe they’re 60 like me, I can’t tell. People are in wheelchairs,” Williams said. “Some people aren’t in wheelchairs … Listen, clearly they’re not of my sound mind and body.”

When Lemon directly asked Williams if she’s “incapacitated,” she hit back, “Hell f–king no!”

“You don’t believe you’re incapacitated, the guardian has said you’re incapacitated permanently and that you have dementia,” Lemon explained, to which Williams claimed, “I don’t know how much I can talk without being punished, and I won’t be able to see my dad, and I won’t be able to do anything and I’ll be stuck in this prison I’m in for the rest of my life.”

“I’m not in a good position,” she added. “My life is screwed up. You know, this guardian mess is — please, look, I am isolated. I feel like I’m in prison. I feel like, you know, they’re trying to control me and everything that I do.”

Williams — who claimed that she only has $15 — also appeared to express interest in going back to work.

“I don’t want to work, like, five days a week. I want to pick and choose what kind of work I want to do because that’s the type of person I am now,” she said.

Following her appearances on The Don Lemon Show and The Breakfast Club, the attorney for Williams’ guardian Roberta Kaplan, released a statement to PEOPLE. Kaplan mentioned Williams’ diagnosis, noting that she “suffers from frontal lobe dementia, a degenerative brain disease that has no cure.”

“As a result, a state court found her to be legally incapacitated, meaning that she is not capable of making legal and financial decisions on her own,” Kaplan added. “Unfortunately, because of her diagnosis, Wendy’s condition will only get worse with time and she will require care for the rest of her life.”

“But as anyone who has had a family member with dementia knows, Wendy has both good days and bad days. It is truly a shame that there is so much voyeuristic attention to this right now, since it only leads to the same kinds of exploitation that we saw in the so-called documentary, as alleged in our complaint,” she added, referring to Williams’ lawsuit against A&E, Lifetime, and the producers of the docuseries, Where Is Wendy Williams?

Meanwhile, Williams’ niece, Alex Finnie, who was by her side during her interviews with both Lemon and Charlamagne, shared that she doesn’t believe her aunt is cognitively impaired and urged fans to use the hashtag #FreeWendy.

via: TooFab

The post Don Lemon Weighs In on Wendy Williams’ Mental State After Interview [Video] appeared first on LOVEBSCOTT.