Everything to Know About Wendy Williams’ Guardianship

The talk show host was placed under a court-ordered guardianship in May 2022

New details about Wendy Williams’ guardianship are coming to light following the release of her Lifetime documentary, Where Is Wendy Williams?.

Filmed between August 2022 and April 2023, the new documentary covers a dark period of Williams’ life following the end of her hit talk show as she dealt with various health issues and alcohol addiction.

The film takes place in the months following the start of her court-ordered guardianship in May 2022. Though Williams and her family discuss the guardianship in the documentary, Williams’ guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, doesn’t appear.

Two days before the planned premiere of Lifetime's new documentary, her guardian filed a lawsuit against Lifetime's parent company A&E Television Networks, seeking to halt the release of the documentary. However, the documentary aired as scheduled on Feb. 24. (Morrissey and A&E have not responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.)

Here’s everything to know about Williams’ guardianship.

Related: What Is Wendy Williams Doing Now? All About Her Life After Her Talk Show

When did Wendy Williams’ guardianship start?

Since May 2022, Williams has been living under a legal guardianship that oversees both her finances and health. Williams was assigned a guardian after Wells Fargo froze her accounts in 2022, as a result of her financial adviser at the time claiming that she was of “unsound mind,” according to Williams’ court filings.

The bank successfully petitioned a New York court to have Williams placed under a temporary financial guardianship, reportedly because she was at risk of financial exploitation due to cognitive issues.

Who is Wendy Williams’ guardian?

When Williams was first put under her legal guardianship, the identity of her guardian was not public. However, the guardian was recently identified as New York lawyer Sabrina Morrissey, whose name was revealed when she filed a lawsuit against Lifetime's parent company, A&E Television Networks.

Williams’ family told PEOPLE that her guardian and current medical team have kept the family out of the loop about details of her life, including her location and the status of her health.

As Williams has been residing at an unnamed facility to address cognitive issues, her family says her court-appointed legal guardian is the only person who currently has unfettered access to her.

What has Wendy Williams said about her guardianship?

Williams briefly talks about her guardianship in the new Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams? In the third episode, Williams says she’s being told there’s no money for her in her Wells Fargo account. Williams claims her guardian, who was not named in the documentary, has stolen from her account.

Filmmakers say she didn’t provide evidence, and her guardian did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. A statement from Wells Fargo reads, "This matter was conducted under seal. Any claims against Wells Fargo have been dismissed."

What has Wendy Williams’ guardian said about her Lifetime documentary?

Williams’ guardian has not officially commented on the recent Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams?. However, Morrissey did file a lawsuit under seal against Lifetime's parent company A&E Television Networks ahead of its release, seeking to halt the release of the documentary. (The legal documents are sealed, so the actual grounds for the suit are not publicly known.)

The network later confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE on Feb. 23: “Lifetime appeared in court today, and the documentary Where Is Wendy Williams? will air this weekend as planned.” The documentary aired as scheduled on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.

While speaking to PEOPLE about Williams, Mark Ford, the executive producer of the documentary, said that "Wendy's attorneys and the guardianship attorneys were consulted and signed off on" the project.

"The film was signed off on by Wendy, her management, her attorneys, the guardianship," he said. "They were aware of the filming all the way through. So, we did go by the book and get all the permissions that we needed to get. We went into this film thinking it was one thing, and the truth turned out to be another. 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."

While Ford says the documentary crew attempted to get Williams’ guardian to speak to them, they were "hung up on every single time" they reached out.

"So, we weren't able to really ask the questions that we would've loved to have asked, like, 'What's going on here on a daily basis? And why is there no food in Wendy's apartment, for example?' Simple things that we were able to see just because we were there so often," Ford said.

What has Wendy Williams’ family said about her guardianship?

In addition to talking about Williams’ guardianship in the Lifetime documentary, several of her family members spoke to PEOPLE about her guardianship in a recent cover story.

When the guardian was appointed to Williams in May 2022, her family says they were kept in the dark as to why the court made the decision, and the court papers with that information remain sealed.

“All I know is that Wendy and her team walked into the courtroom one way, and they walked out, and the family is completely excluded,” Williams' sister Wanda Finnie said.

Williams' family added that they have been largely in the dark about her health issues and treatments as she resides at an unnamed facility to address cognitive issues.

"How did she go from this aunt or sister that we love and is healthy one minute to this person who’s in and out of the hospital?” Wanda Finnie asks in PEOPLE’s cover story. “How is that system better than the system the family could put in place? I don't know. I do know that this system is broken. I hope that at some point, Wendy becomes strong enough where she can speak on her own behalf."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.