Source: The Washington Post / Getty
It’s been a rough few weeks for Wendy Williams. The 54-year-old talk show host revealed last month that she’s been staying in a sober living house to battle addiction. It also came out that her husband Kevin Hunter’s alleged longtime mistress Sharina Hudson, recently gave birth to a baby girl. While the star hasn’t addressed the latter issue, she’s been confronted with it in the streets by photogs.
It’s safe to say that Williams could use a hug (as well as a lot of distance from Hunter), but that doesn’t mean she wants it.
After a taping last week of her eponymous talk show, Williams was giving out show merch to fans in the audience. When one woman was picked to come down and get a T-shirt, with fans literally awwwing at “how sweet” the gesture was, the woman walked down with arms extended to give Williams a hug. The talk show host said, “No hugging,” and when it looked like she was still opening her arms for a hug, Williams cocked her arm back with shirt in hand as though she was going to pop the woman if she got too close:
I get that not everyone wants to be touched, let alone hugged by people they don’t know. But Williams is a public figure with a lot of fans and followers, so it shouldn’t be a shock that sometimes they want to express their adoration in such ways. There’s a nicer way to pass on a hug than to say it in such a strong way and follow it up with a defensive stance. Plus, her team was right there behind her in this instance, so if things went left, they could handle the situation.
This isn’t the first time Williams has rejected a hug request from a fan, though. People have brought up her “odd” hugging style on online forum pages. One woman shared her own account of being rejected for a hug by Williams in an interview.
Lauren Craig took part in the “Ask Wendy” segment of the show last year. The host didn’t approve of Craig’s dating standards, which was her proud choice to only date wealthy guys, and things didn’t end well. She asked the host for a hug when cameras weren’t rolling and Craig said Williams didn’t even say no, she just stared at her.
“After the segment, I’m so excited. I’m thinking, “This is amazing. Oh my god, I can’t even believe that just happened,” she told Brick City Live last year. “And of course, you know, we’re still doing television: they’re telling us to stand up, clap, cheer, whoop whoop. So we’re all cheering in the audience, and Wendy’s walking through the audience, and I see her again and I’m like, ‘Hey girl, Wendy. It’s all good. Give me a hug!’ And she literally looked at me with the death stare. She’s looking me up and down shaking her head like, ‘Mmm mmm.’ She refused my hug. I don’t think anybody’s ever refused my hug in my life.”
For the record, Williams does give a light hug (and sometimes a peck on the cheek) to her famous guests when they visit for interviews, but fans? Well, now they know, that’s going to be a no.
