Talk show host and gossip queen Wendy Williams has filed for divorce from her husband Kevin Hunter after almost 22 years of marriage.
Page Six confirmed the news on April 11, via Williams’ attorney. Williams filed for divorce in Essex County, New Jersey, and served Hunter at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday.
“Thank you to everyone for respecting the family’s privacy during this time,” a personal representative for Williams said in a statement, via Page Six. “Kevin is supportive of Wendy and they are working through this process together.”
Leading up to the divorce was a series of revelations, some that directly affected Williams’ television show.
She was found drunk after her husband’s alleged mistress, Sharina Hudson, gave birth on March 25, the New York Post reported. The news emerged about a week after Williams admitted on her talk show that she was living in a sobriety house to deal with substance abuse issues.
“This is a crazy situation, Wendy is in a halfway house fighting for her sobriety, while her husband is at the side of his mistress who is giving birth to a baby. Sharina went into labor on Sunday [and] is believed to have given birth late on Sunday or in the early hours of Monday,” a source told Page Six.
Daily Mail said she ended up in the sober house after a fight with her husband over cheating rumors, and that confrontation led to Williams fracturing her shoulder. Williams then became addicted to pills and alcohol.
Her husband sent her to a Florida treatment program, but Williams could still sneak out and get alcohol, according to the Daily Mail. She then entered a sober house in Long Island City, Queens, New York.
In the midst of this affair, Williams missed hosting many episodes of her show, starting at the end of last year until she came back in the first part of this year.
Williams has never confirmed the cheating rumors about her husband, but recently she has been seen without her wedding ring on some occasions.
In addition to cheating rumors, there were also rumors of abuse. An intern at Williams’ former radio show described a scenario that occurred after fights between Hunter and Williams at her office.
“She would hide in the bathroom and tell me to knock on the door when he left the office so she wouldn’t have to see him,” an intern told the New York Post.
The intern also described what would happen when Williams were in a private room together at work.
“You’d hear slaps or some type of tussling going on.”
Other associates describe Hunter as a controlling man. Radio personality Charlamagne Tha God said Hunter is “sucking the life out of” Williams, Page Six reported.
Williams’ friend, Paul Porter, said Hunter is a “control freak” and “a terror.” He also commented on Williams willingness to remain committed to the marriage despite those faults, saying “for some reason, she can’t break away.”
Daily Mail reported the divorce could be contested. Hunter is the executive producer for “The Wendy Williams Show,” and he told his alleged mistress before that he couldn’t afford a divorce from wife Williams since she pays the bills.
Daily Mail also says that an excerpt from Williams memoir reveals she would only divorce her husband if he had another woman’s baby.