Wendy Williams Diagnosed With Dementia and Aphasia
Wendy Williams Diagnosed With Dementia and Aphasia
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00:00 A heartbreaking health update on Wendy Williams, her care team revealing the talk show host
00:05 has been diagnosed with dementia and aphasia.
00:08 This is all too much.
00:09 Go!
00:10 Drive!
00:11 I have no idea where we are.
00:13 This doesn't look like anything familiar.
00:16 In a surprising press release, Wendy's team saying both conditions were diagnosed last
00:20 year, as family and fans expressed concern for the talk show host's mental well-being.
00:25 I think she's losing memory.
00:26 Have you guys noticed that?
00:28 How dare you?
00:29 I control me.
00:31 The new details come just two days before the release of her documentary, "Where is
00:35 Wendy Williams?"
00:36 Anybody could look at her and tell this is not just alcohol.
00:39 There's something more going on.
00:41 You know, you've got to take care of your kids and you've got to take care of your health
00:44 and you have to take care of your job.
00:46 The health care team says Wendy's decision to speak out was difficult.
00:51 And they hope this news can allow her fans to offer understanding and compassion.
00:58 As you lose more nerve cells, you get more symptoms and it worsens.
01:02 And I think it is often the family that really knows first and sees what's happening to the
01:06 person and sees that something is progressing.
01:09 And the unfortunate thing about frontotemporal dementia is there's not much you can do about
01:14 it.
01:15 Wendy isn't the first big name to face such conditions in recent years.
01:18 In 2022, Bruce Willis' family shared he's facing the same devastating diseases.
01:24 Ex-wife Demi Moore giving an update on his battle last month.
01:27 You know, I think given the givens he's doing very well.
01:33 And what I'll share is what I say to my children, which it's important to just meet them where
01:40 they're at.
01:41 Like Bruce, Wendy's battling frontotemporal dementia, which affects the ability to communicate,
01:46 along with aphasia, a disease causing a gradual loss of speech and the ability to understand
01:51 language.
01:52 It's a group of diseases that have the common factor that the brain loses brain cells.
02:00 So the average life expectancy from when you get the first symptoms is about eight to 10
02:06 years.
02:07 And the reason is that as your brain stops working, a body without a brain can't maintain.
02:14 When I saw her, she had to say one thing.
02:18 I knew that every cylinder is not firing the way it should.
02:23 Wendy's niece, Alex Finney, also opening up about her health battle, sitting down with
02:26 Good Morning America.
02:27 I said I wasn't going to cry because I feel like I've cried enough over the last year
02:31 and a half.
02:32 But what people are going to see is a broken woman who has had the world on her shoulders
02:36 for so long and just cracked.
02:39 I have no friends.
02:40 You know how many people come out to support you?
02:41 You know how many people love you?
02:43 No, I don't.
02:44 Wendy's niece shutting down rumors that her family is taking advantage of the talk show
02:47 host's health battle.
02:49 I know that, I will say this, family benefiting from this, no.
02:53 I don't, that's, no.
02:56 I just hope that the person that comes out of this victorious is my aunt.
03:02 [music]
03:05 (bells chiming)
03:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]