Last October, Wendy Williams delayed returning to hosting the show that bears her name.
Alarming reports about Wendy’s declining health and mobility followed, but were not confirmed.
After months of a rotating carousel of guest hosts, The Wendy Williams Show has selected a "permanent guest host."
It remains unclear when Wendy will be well enough to return, but it will not be soon.
An inside source spoke to People about the legendary television host’s ongoing state of career limbo.
"Wendy won’t be returning to the show for the rest of this season," the insider shared.
The source grimly explained: "Her healing is going slower than everyone had hoped."
"She continues to deal with a number of medical issues," the insider confirmed.
The source detailed that these are issues "including Graves’ disease."
"And," the insider continued, "she and her team are taking it one day at a time."
"But reports of a stroke, drugs, or addiction issues," the source stated, "or a dementia diagnosis are all false."
"Whether Wendy can return in the fall will depend on how her healing goes over the summer," the insider clarified.
"Her health is the most important thing," the source correctly affirmed.
On Tuesday, TMZ reported that The Wendy Williams Show has settled upon a "permanent guest host" for the foreseeable future.
That guest host is reportedly Sherri Shepherd.
Production previously selected Sherri in November, at which point ratings soared, reflecting a very positive audience reaction.
Sherri’s representative did confirm a return to the guest hosting position on the week of February 21.
However, there was no comment on the report that Sherri will resume this role in a long-term capacity.
Still, these are extremely reputable publications that are reporting on the decision, which makes it sound very certain.
Last year, Wendy Williams was presumably looking forward to her show’s 13th season premiere.
However, she suffered a breakthrough COVID-19 infection.
Combined with ongoing health struggles, such as her Graves’ disease, Wendy had to delay returning on October 4.
The premiere had to be pushed back again, this time to October 18, as she continued to recover from COVID.
Wendy was under medical supervision and continued to meet with a team of medical experts on a daily basis to manage her care.
She was experiencing "serious complications" and could not return to hosting.
Obviously, the show put Wendy’s health first, and her fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
Towards this end, this is when a revolving door of guest hosts began to filter in and out of the show.
Not everyone was a perfect fit, of course. Wendy has very big shoes to fill, so to speak.
It’s a real shame because, not that there’s any good time for her to endure a prolonged health crisis, but the timing was especially poor.
Through a lot of 2021, there was something of a Wendy Williams Renaissance on TikTok.
As little clips and samples of Wendy’s most outlandish on-screen moments circulated on social media, more people than ever before became enthralled by her larger than life personality.
We are hopeful that Wendy will pull through and make a full recovery.
None of us can claim that we always agreed with her, but that doesn’t mean that we wish her ill.
Until she makes a full recovery, we’re sure that Sherri will do a wonderful job.
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