Wendy Williams’ Most Controversial Comments Through the Years

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Wendy Williams’ Most Controversial Comments Through the Years

How you doin’? Wendy Williams quickly became known as a “shock jockette” during her years as a radio host, a title she has since carried into her career in television. The New Jersey native began working in the radio industry in the early 1980s, deejaying at stations in the Virgin Islands, Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia. By 1993, Billboard named her the Best On-Air Radio Personality, thanks in part to her candor with listeners. Over time, she amassed a loyal fan base by sharing details about her personal life, opening up about her marriages, miscarriages, plastic surgeries and history with addiction. In 2008, Williams landed her own daytime talk show, The Wendy Williams Show. It initially aired in only four cities but was picked up nationally in 2009 and eventually internationally. Through the years, the series has traded off with The Ellen DeGeneres Show as the top-rated syndicated talk show with a female host. Despite the Emmy nominee’s massive success, she has come under fire countless times both as a radio host and a TV host. She infamously conducted a controversial interview with Whitney Houston in 2003 and has mocked celebrities including Joaquin Phoenix and Rob Kardashian in more recent years. “I am often accused of being the person who says things that people really want to say but maybe are too scared to say it,” she said in a New York Times Magazine profile in August 2019. “Through the grace of God, people have given me permission to say those things for 10 seasons. I get in trouble sometimes, but it’s all good. Actually, I can’t even think of what kind of trouble.” Scroll down to revisit Williams’ most controversial comments through the years.

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Wendy Williams’ Most Controversial Comments Through the Years

How you doin’? Wendy Williams quickly became known as a “shock jockette” during her years as a radio host, a title she has since carried into her career in television. The New Jersey native began working in the radio industry in the early 1980s, deejaying at stations in the Virgin Islands, Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia. By 1993, Billboard named her the Best On-Air Radio Personality, thanks in part to her candor with listeners. Over time, she amassed a loyal fan base by sharing details about her personal life, opening up about her marriages, miscarriages, plastic surgeries and history with addiction. In 2008, Williams landed her own daytime talk show, The Wendy Williams Show. It initially aired in only four cities but was picked up nationally in 2009 and eventually internationally. Through the years, the series has traded off with The Ellen DeGeneres Show as the top-rated syndicated talk show with a female host. Despite the Emmy nominee’s massive success, she has come under fire countless times both as a radio host and a TV host. She infamously conducted a controversial interview with Whitney Houston in 2003 and has mocked celebrities including Joaquin Phoenix and Rob Kardashian in more recent years. “I am often accused of being the person who says things that people really want to say but maybe are too scared to say it,” she said in a New York Times Magazine profile in August 2019. “Through the grace of God, people have given me permission to say those things for 10 seasons. I get in trouble sometimes, but it’s all good. Actually, I can’t even think of what kind of trouble.” Scroll down to revisit Williams’ most controversial comments through the years.

Credit: Shutterstock; Courtesy of Swavy/Instagram

The ‘Disrespectful’ Swavy Segment

Murdered TikTok star Swavy, whose real name was Matima Miller, died at age 19 after a shooting in Wilmington, Delaware, but Williams sounded unaffected by the news of his death in a July 2021 segment.

"I have no idea who this is," Williams said. "Neither does one person in this building."

She went on to compare their followers. "He's a TikTok star. He's got more followers than me — 2.5 million," she said before the audience applauded her for having more Instagram followers than him.

Swavy’s mother, Chanelle Clark, told Philadelphia’s CBS3 that she didn’t appreciate Williams’ commentary. “Like, as a mother, Wendy Williams, how dare you? So disrespectful," Clark said. "I used to watch you as a child and even though you have a gossip show and all that, you didn't even know my son."

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Dionne Warwick

In December 2020, the host came under fire after making fun of Dionne Warwick, who had been tweeting about artists' stage names.

“She’s never been involved in the Twittersphere. She watches TV or she sings songs, or she reads books or she socializes, or she moisturizes her hair," Williams said during her show. “I think if you’re a person of a particular age, you need to [be on] social media and you need to get down sometimes and talk at these kids. Not to them talk at them. But you do need somebody young in your family just to make sure that you’re coming off correct.”

Warwick later responded via Twitter. "A friend alerted me that Wendy Williams was spending a lot of not nice time speaking on me. I tuned in to her show to catch the last few minutes of her speaking about me and as in the past she seems not to be able to speak without maliciously made comments," she wrote. "My hope is my name will refrain from being spoken or thought of by her as this conversation was held a few years ago letting her know there was nor would be any need for her to say the name Dionne Warwick for any reason. I don’t believe one has to be mean to get noticed."

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Calling Other TV Hosts’ Looks ‘Disgusting’

The National Radio Hall of Fame inductee raised eyebrows in May 2020 when she took aim at fellow TV hosts’ at-home looks amid the COVID-19 quarantine. “Looking disgusting,” she told CNN.

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Mocking Amie Harwick’s Death

Williams was heavily criticized in February 2020 for making light of Amie Harwick’s murder. After telling her studio audience about the celebrity therapist being pushed from a balcony, the host said, “Come on down,” borrowing Harwick’s ex-fiancée Drew Carey’s famous phrase from The Price Is Right.

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Commenting on Gay Men Wearing Women’s Clothes

On Galentine’s Day 2020 (a made-up holiday from Parks and Recreation that celebrates female friendship), Williams lashed out at the men in her audience. “If you’re a man and you’re clapping, you’re not even a part of this,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re gay … Stop wearing our skirts and our heels. Gay men, you will never be the women that we are — no matter how gay, sir.” She tearfully apologized the next day.

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Mocking Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Cleft Lip’ Scar

The Wendy Williams clothing designer faced backlash in January 2020 after lifting up her top lip on TV while showing a photo of a scar that Phoenix was born with. She later vowed to donate to the nonprofit organizations Operation Smile and the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.

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Slamming Meghan Markle

Williams cast doubt on Meghan Markle in October 2019 after the Duchess of Sussex opened up about the downsides of marrying into the British royal family. “You knew exactly what you were doing,” Williams said. “Please don’t try to garner sympathy from us.” She went on to say that people “didn’t even know who” Meghan was before she started dating Prince Harry.

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Suggesting Christie Brinkley’s Injury Was ‘Fake as Hell’

After Christie Brinkley was forced to drop out of Dancing With the Stars season 28 in September 2019 due to an injury she sustained during rehearsals, Williams said on her show, “Well, that looked fake as hell. … I don’t see a wrist and a shoulder being fractured, but that was real cute.”

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Calling Out Rob Kardashian’s ‘Lack of Confidence’

Williams criticized Kardashian and his relationship with then-fiancée Blac Chyna for nearly five minutes straight on The Wendy Williams Show in November 2016, saying, “It’s not even about Rob being overweight. … It’s about Rob’s lack of confidence. A woman likes a man to take control. Put some bass in your voice and don’t let her run over you. It’s not attractive.” Chyna fired back on Instagram soon after, writing, “I find it so funny how you love to talk about Rob and his insecurities like at a point in time you wasn’t a fat 400 pound ass bitch on the radio!”

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Insinuating Caitlyn Jenner Isn’t a Woman

The Ask Wendy author was slammed in October 2016 for pointing out that a Cosmopolitan cover featured “all the Kardashian women” except Caitlyn Jenner, who came out as a transgender woman the previous year. “Caitlyn still has a member,” she said as the cameras cut to one of her producers shaking his head.

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Saying Beyonce Has a ‘5th Grade Education’

Williams drove the Beyhive wild in December 2012 while discussing Beyoncé’s HBO documentary, Life Is But a Dream, on her talk show. “Fortunately one of the TVs in our kitchen has closed-captioning, so I’ll be able to understand what she says,” she said. “You know Beyoncé can’t talk. She sounds like she has a fifth grade education. … We have to call a spade a spade.”

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Leaking Method Man’s Wife’s Cancer Diagnosis

Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man called out Williams in 2006 after she let slip on her radio show that his wife, Tamika Smith, had been battling breast cancer. “You don’t do that to nobody. You say [what] the f--k you want to say about me, say nothing about my family,” he said at the time, noting that some of Smith’s own family members had not even known about her diagnosis yet.

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Grilling Whitney Houston

Williams caused a stir in January 2003 when she brought up Houston’s drug abuse, romances and financial struggles during a radio interview. The legendary singer warned the host to “watch what you say, baby girl,” prompting Williams to urge her to “watch what you do.” Soon after, Houston hung up the phone, cutting off their expletive-filled chat.

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Falsely Claiming Tupac Shakur Was Raped

The Wendy’s Got the Heat author spread a false rumor in 1995 that Tupac Shakur had been raped in prison two years prior. The rapper later said, “That ­disrespected me, my family and what I represent.” Shakur’s diss track about Williams, “Why U Turn on Me?,” was released after his 1996 murder.