Judge Threatens Even Less Autonomy for Wendy Williams

Wendy Williams has described the New York assisted living facility in which she lives as a "prison." Now, a judge is threatening even more restrictions on the former talk show host diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. "I have always contended that [Williams] will be given the independence she can handle. I question how well she has handled the independence she has been given," Judge Lisa Sokoloff writes in a letter to Williams' attorney, viewed by TMZ. The outlet's sources say the judge is frustrated with Williams for speaking to the media—she dropped a request for help to paparazzi on Monday before booking a Friday appearance on the View—after she was repeatedly told not to do so.

Declared legally incapacitated, Williams has argued she is mentally competent but locked in a guardianship against her will. On Tuesday, she told Good Day New York that she'd aced a cognitive evaluation at a hospital, the results of which would be passed to a judge overseeing her case. Meanwhile, a lawyer for Williams' guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, bashed the media coverage of Williams' case as "untrue, inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading." She indicated Williams is receiving "excellent medical care" in a facility with a "spa, a workout room, excellent food, a dining room, and outside terraces," per TMZ.

Williams claims she's often denied access to these spaces as she needs permission to leave the facility's memory unit. She also claims she's rarely allowed visitors, though the guardian's lawyer said she can see family whenever she wants, and twice traveled to Florida for that reason. However, on one recent trip, she was allegedly sent with a credit card with no funds, prompting claims of elder abuse now being investigated by Adult Protective Services, Page Six reports. In the letter, Sokoloff indicated that, upon leaving the hospital, Williams would need to return to the facility known as Coterie "until a new facility can be found" but indicated she could have less independence going forward. (More Wendy Williams stories.)