Source: Lifetime / lifetime
Wendy Williams is known from being an outspoken “shock jock” that is either hated or loved throughout the entertainment industry. After reporting on hot topics for years, she became one when she began having health issues and then was publicly humiliated by her ex-husband Kevin Hunter who had a baby with his longtime mistress Sharina Hudson. With the premiere of her Lifetime biopic, Wendy Williams: The Movie, Williams took all the pain she has experienced and created a biopic that not only pulled at your heart strings but proved that she is a media icon whether you like it or not.
I couldn’t help but empathize with the young Wendy Williams. During her childhood in Asbury Park, New Jersey, her parents made it a habit to weigh her, scolded her when she gained weight and her father would tell her that she would be prettier if she just lost weight. So as a child, she was tormented by her own parents, something that haunted her the rest of her life. She became so anxious about her weight problems that she even began wetting the bed. Her mother and father also put her on diets. It was drilled into her head that she wasn’t desirable. As she said in the documentary that followed the biopic, Wendy Williams: What A Mess, her family was late to her party. She sought to resolve her body image issues with plastic surgery and cocaine, which she said kept her weight down and suppressed her appetite. Even if you hate the gossip queen, you can’t help but sympathize with her during the scenes that depicted her childhood.
Source: Lifetime / lifetime
The movie also showed us the Williams worked hard to get where she is. Despite being fired at times and ruffling the feathers of her supervisors, she was never unemployed for more than two weeks and when she saw a position she wanted she went for it fearlessly and relentlessly. When she wanted to work at Kiss FM she sat in the lobby for two weeks straight until she got noticed. She worked in other radio markets including St. Croix, Boston and Philadelphia. While working at Power 99 in Philadelphia, she even got a weekend job at a New York radio station in pursuit of her dreams of making it to the Big Apple. Everything Williams wanted, she got. Her cocaine problem didn’t even stop her. Williams has been in radio and media for over three decades and that is no mistake. It’s a result of her hard work, resilience, determination and boldness.
Williams didn’t steer away from including her marital problems with Hunter in the biopic. Hunter, whom she described as a serial cheat, wooed her in the beginning and made her feel protected but later broke her heart and left her feeling defeated. According to the biopic, she discovered that Hunter was cheating on her after the birth of their son, Kevin Jr. He didn’t stop though. He continued to engage in his infidelity before seeming to settle down with mistress Sharina Hudson. He even had the audacity to purchase a house for he and Hudson within 10 miles of his home with Williams and their son. The audacity of his behavior surely struck a cord of rage with each female viewer who was tuned in. Williams found the home and vandalized it, spray painting “Kevin and Wendy 4-ever” on the garage door after sealing things around the house shut with gorilla glue. The most satisfying scene was when Hunter visited Williams at her sober living home and she confronted him about his newborn child outside of his marriage. She scolded him for causing heartbreak that was crushing her to her core and told him that she wanted a divorce. In that scene, Williams broke free from the hope that kept her thinking things could change for so long. She was not only fed up with Hunter’s disrespect and disloyalty, but also with the way he was affecting her business affairs as well as the embarrassment of his affair being outed to the world. In that scene, she told Hunter that he wasn’t going to eat good by sitting at her table anymore and that without her he would starve. It was satisfying to see her use her boldness for more than hot topics and take back her power.
Throughout her whole life, Williams has taken lemons and made lemonade. No matter how much pain and suffering she was experiencing, she always pressed on and found solace in her passion. Whether you adore or disapprove of Williams, her drive, work ethic and influence cannot be denied. Hate it or love it, Williams is one of the most renowned and acclaimed Black women in media, and she deserves her roses while she can smell them. If you didn’t think so before, Wendy Williams: The Movie proves you wrong.
