Wendy Williams’ profession has seen many ups and downs. Greatest-known for being the host of the syndicated TV speak present, The Wendy Williams Present, the previous radio DJ has revealed a number of books, been inducted into the Radio Corridor of Fame, and even had two TV motion pictures made about her life. However the 57-year-old entertainer has additionally had her justifiable share of struggles, together with battles with habit and power sickness. Via all of it, Wendy Williams’ fortune has remained (principally) intact, because of good monetary planning and many laborious work. Right here’s a take a look at Wendy Williams’ internet value in 2021.
Wendy Williams Has Written A number of Books
Wendy Williams is the writer of seven books, together with her 2003 autobiography, Wendy’s Received the Warmth. Co-written by New York Day by day Information journalist Karen Hunter, the bestselling bio covers a few of Williams’ hardest life challenges up till that point, together with childhood trauma and drug habit. In 2004, she revealed The Wendy Williams Expertise, a gossip-driven take a look at the lives of among the period’s greatest stars. Near a decade later, she launched the self-help/recommendation e-book, Ask Wendy: Straight-Up Recommendation for All of the Drama In Your Life.
Williams can be the writer of 4 fiction titles, three of that are a part of a semi-autobiographical sequence a couple of radio shock jock named Ritz Harper (Drama Is Her Center Title, Is the Bitch Useless, or What?, and Ritz Harper Goes to Hollywood). In 2014, Williams wrote a romance novel referred to as Maintain Me in Contempt.
As profitable as she’s been within the publishing world, Williams says she by no means anticipated to be a bestselling writer. “My dad is the author in my family,” she said in a 2013 interview with the Wall Street Journal. “He was an English teacher, a school principal, and eventually, a professor of English at a university. He’s now retired and lives with my mom in Florida, but he is constantly trying to write the great American novel. So he’s the one, he’s the writer. I fell into it through having a successful TV career.”
She’s Greatest Recognized As A Radio And TV Persona
Williams kicked off her profession as a radio disc jockey quickly after graduating from school. After working various completely different jobs at numerous stations across the nation, the aspiring star received her huge break in 1990 as a morning present host on an city up to date station in New York Metropolis. Williams rapidly turned a preferred and highly-rated native radio persona, identified for her penchant for gossiping about rappers and big-name celebs.
By 2008, Williams’ radio present was syndicated throughout the nation. That summer time, she was given her personal TV speak present, The Wendy Williams Present, which was an enormous success. The following yr, the rising star left radio to pursue her TV profession full-time. Along with her eponymous present, which averages over a million viewers an episode, Williams has hosted and appeared on various sport reveals and actuality sequence, together with Dancing With the Stars, The Masked Singer, Celebrities Undercover, and Demise By Gossip with Wendy Williams.
With regards to her position as a radio and TV speak present host, Williams says she takes her job very severely. “It takes a lot to be invited into people’s cars on the radio. It’s a very intimate place to talk to people,” she said in a 2021 interview. “And I always honored that. And it takes a lot to be on television every day, even more because daytime TV is a very special place to be.”
Wendy Williams’ Performing Gigs
Along with speak radio and internet hosting, Wendy Williams has tried her hand at appearing. She’s appeared in cameo roles each as herself and as fictional characters on TV reveals comparable to Martin, One Life to Reside, 30 Rock, Drop Useless Diva, and Legislation & Order: Particular Victims Unit. She’s additionally been in various function movies, together with Suppose Like a Man, Suppose Like a Man Too, World Conflict Z, and Mike and Dave Want Marriage ceremony Dates.
In 2013, the previous shock jock had a short stint on Broadway, starring in a seven-week run of the hit musical Chicago.
Williams had by no means carried out dwell theater earlier than and admitted it took her a while to get into the swing of issues. “In the beginning, I was having a difficult time remembering lines,” she said in an interview with Broadway World. “[But] who says no to Broadway? They called and of course I said yes. And then I figured out how I was going to do it — after I said yes.”
Whereas her forays into appearing have been profitable, Williams says she has ambitions aside from appearing relating to Hollywood. “I would like to produce more stuff,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “And that stuff would be for other people to star in, not me — I’m not an actress. I liked being part of the process of writing, and also I would like to sit in that director’s chair one day. Just to be an associate director or something.”
Life Hasn’t At all times Been Straightforward For Williams
By no means one to draw back from actual speak, Williams has been open about her private struggles. Twice divorced, she watched her second marriage to producer and supervisor Kevin Hunter crumble as her TV profession took off. “My divorce was about a good 10 years in the making,” Williams said in an interview with Essence magazine. “I’ll be honest with you. With every year, the talk show would get bigger and better, and my husband would get meaner to the world. I didn’t like who I was seeing.”
To make issues worse, Hunter ended up dishonest on his speak present spouse and fathering a child with his mistress. Williams filed for divorce in 2019, after greater than 21 years of marriage.
Williams can be no stranger to power sickness. She’s suffered from the autoimmune dysfunction Graves illness since 1999 and was recognized with lymphedema (a situation that causes swelling within the limbs because of lymphatic system blockage) in 2019. In September 2021, she disclosed that she was battling “ongoing health issues” and a COVID-19 prognosis that compelled her to cancel promotional appearances for the 13th season of The Wendy Williams Present.
On prime of all this, the self-described “Queen of All Media” battled a decade-long drug habit, which she stated compelled her to dwell a double life whereas her star was on the rise. “I was a functioning addict,” Williams told Entertainment Tonight in 2018. “I’d report to work on time, and I’d walk in and all my co-workers, including my bosses, would know, but since I would have my headphones on and walk in the studio and [they] wouldn’t fire me because I was making ratings.”
In early 2019, after a protracted interval of sobriety, Williams revealed on her show that she had suffered a relapse and was searching for remedy for her habit whereas residing in a sober home. Reportedly, she moved out of the sober home later that spring has maintained her sobriety ever since.
Wendy Williams’ Web Price
Thankfully for the speak present host, her private struggles haven’t appeared to have an effect on her internet value an excessive amount of. Whereas Williams has by no means publicly verified the worth of her fortune, each Wealthy Gorilla and Celebrity Net Worth estimate her to be value roughly $40 million.
Reportedly, her TV speak present wage is about $10 million per yr, which breaks right down to round $55,000 per episode. Her bestselling books additionally herald money, as do various entrepreneurial pursuits, together with a web-based wig assortment and clothes and accent line partnerships with purchasing channel HSN.
And let’s not overlook the reported $15 million she makes a year from her production company, Wendy Williams Productions (WWP). Or the hefty paychecks she earned as govt producer of the 2 Lifetime motion pictures about her life, Wendy Williams: The Film and Wendy Williams: What A Mess! Add all of it up and also you’ve received a fairly substantial sum.
The one factor which will have negatively affected Williams’ fortune was her divorce. According to Page Six, the Billboard Radio Award winner was ordered to pay Hunter $250,000 following their break up so he might “secure new living arrangements.” And whereas the main points of their divorce settlement weren’t publicly disclosed, experts guess it was messy. The pair reportedly didn’t have a prenup and had loads of group property after 21 years of marriage — together with WWP, which they based collectively.
However, we’re fairly certain Williams was capable of take all of it in stride. She even stated as a lot in an interview with Essence, admitting: “I have the privilege of having a thriving career. That was a blessing and a curse. There came a point early that I knew, ‘OK, I’m going to have to pay alimony.’ But I can handle that. It’s comical to me almost.”
