Wendy Williams' Producers Refused To Support Her Addiction Recovery Efforts, Ex-Husband Alleges

Wendy Williams' ex-husband Kevin Hunter has claimed that producers of her eponymous talk show allegedly did not support her addiction recovery efforts while she was still hosting "The Wendy Williams Show."

Hunter claimed to Page Six that the daytime talk show's syndication company Debmar-Mercury allegedly didn’t want to engage in any activity that would take Williams, 58, away from her hosting duties. International Business Times could not independently verify this information.

"Debmar would not support Wendy's recovery efforts with the family," Hunter, 50, told the outlet. "They would not sign off on anything that would've helped her recovery efforts."

According to Hunter, he and Williams' family allegedly met with Debmar-Mercury to discuss how to further aid the TV host in her battle with alcoholism. However, the producers allegedly were not helpful and even gave Williams an ultimatum, Hunter claimed.

"They sat in a meeting with her whole family, including her now-deceased mom, and would not sign off on the recovery efforts that would’ve helped Wendy also get well and live and be sober. They basically said, 'If you don’t stop drinking, you’re going to lose the show,'" he told the outlet.

The alleged intervention reportedly took place a month and a half before Hunter would go on to welcome a love child with his alleged mistress Sharina Hudson and after Williams worked full-time while living in a sober house.

An unnamed source close to the show told Page Six that Williams "still wasn’t capable of making all the decisions" upon departing the facility, but she was "hiding" it. Williams filed for divorce from Hunter in 2019.

Reps for Debmar-Mercury did not respond to requests for comment, while Williams' rep had no comment, according to the outlet.

Williams battled drug and alcohol addiction throughout her career. She was sober until she appeared to relapse in late 2018 or early 2019.

She went on hiatus from her show for two months but said at the time that she was undergoing treatment for her Graves' disease. After she returned to her daytime talk show in March 2019, Williams revealed that she had been staying at a sober-living facility.

However, following her return, unnamed sources told Page Six that Hunter, who was alleged to be controlling, might have been the reason for her entering the facility.

"The Wendy Williams Show" aired its final episode on June 17 with Sherri Shepherd in the host's seat and no trace of Williams. The show's eponymous host was sidelined with health issues for the entire 13th season.

Williams recently told TMZ that she was "100% retired" from hosting TV shows and that she was now venturing into the podcast world and excited about finding new love.

In an interview with the New York Post earlier this month, she said that there was "nothing" she liked about the finale of the "Wendy Williams Show."

The "Ask Wendy" author claimed that she didn't appear in the last episode because producers didn't reach out to her to film anything as a "television farewell" for her fans.

"[Debmar-Mercury] didn't ask me to do that, so I didn't," she told the outlet. "I sat in my apartment and I watched it. And [I was] like, 'Eek!'"