The legendary talk show host is reportedly living with the same condition as Bruce Willis
Wendy Williams was rushed to hospital yesterday (March 10) after dropping a note pleading for help to the paparazzi downstairs from her fifth story room in an assisted living facility in New York. According to Page six, the police were then called to do a wellness check and the talk show icon was swiftly escorted to a waiting ambulance.
The 60-year-old had been placed in the facility after her care team announced last year that she was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and progressive aphasia. The same devastating condition that forced actor Bruce Willis into retirement.
Her team noted that some of the first symptoms Wendy had shown were memory issues, losing words and “acting erratically”. She was specifically diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a rare type of dementia that affects language heavily.
The NHS notes that people with PPA first notice issues with finding the right word or remembering someone’s name. Their speech may become hesitant or difficult and they may start making mistakes in grammar and pronunciation.
Other symptoms that get progressively worse over time include:
- Speech becoming slow with short, simple sentences
- Forgetting the meaning of complicated words, and later also simple ones
- Speech becoming more vague
- Having difficulty being specific or clarifying what they’re saying
- Becoming less likely to join in with or start conversations
- Behaviour or personality changes
- Memory issues mimicking Alzheimer’s disease
- Movement problems similar to Parkinson’s Disease
The NHS notes that most people with vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease usually have a mild form of aphasia. Usually, aphasia is treated with speech and language therapy or finding alternative ways to communicate, more information and advice is available on the NHS website.
Months after her aphasia and dementia diagnosis was revealed, Wendy hit back claiming she is not cognitively impaired at all and has branded the assisted living facility a “prison”. She is also currently fighting against the court-ordered guardianship she has been living under since 2022.
According to TMZ, her hospital visit this week will include an independent examination to attempt to determine if she is sufficiently cognitively functional to end her guardianship. The Wendy Williams Show host has been an icon of daytime TV since 2008, and was candid about her other health struggles over the years including Graves Disease, Lymphedema and substance abuse.