They’re “Overprotected.”
Wendy Williams’ latest plea for freedom from her guardianship eerily drew parallels to Britney Spears’ impassioned court speech about her conservatorship.
Both stars described being placed in mental health facilities against their will, with Williams telling “The Breakfast Club” listeners Thursday that she feels like she is “in prison” and Spears testifying to a Los Angeles judge in 2021 that she was pumped full of psychiatric drugs during her stay.
Wendy Williams pleaded for freedom from her guardianship during a “Breakfast Club” interview Thursday. Lifetime
Britney Spears similarly asked a court to end her 13-year conservatorship in 2021. Instagram/britneyspears
The former “Wendy Williams Show” host, who has been in a New York wellness center for primarily elderly patients since 2023, said, “I am definitely isolated. To talk to these people who live here, that is not my cup of tea. I keep the door closed. I watch TV. I listen to the radio. I watch the window. I sit here, and my life goes by.”
Meanwhile, the pop star, who received treatment in California for four months in 2019, shared, “If I didn’t do any of my meetings and work from 8 [a.m.] to 6 at night, which is 10 hours a day, seven days a week, no days off, I wouldn’t be able to see my kids or my boyfriend. … Sitting in a chair 10 hours a day, seven days a week, it ain’t fun.”
Williams, 60, told listeners that she does not have access to a modern cellphone, laptop or tablet and therefore cannot contact her family, while Spears, 43, said in court that her phone, credit card, cash and passport had been taken away.
Williams said she feels like she is “in prison” in a New York wellness center, where she was diagnosed with dementia. Getty Images
“I sit here, and my life goes by,” she said. Lifetime
Both celebrities described their legal situations as “abusive,” with the “Toxic” singer going so far as to compare being “forced” to work to being a victim of sex trafficking.
“My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship — and my management, who played a huge role in punishing me when I said no — ma’am, they should be in jail,” Spears told the judge at the time.
During Williams’ radio interview, she detailed feeling “trapped” since a New York court placed her under a guardianship in 2022. She broke down in tears while saying, “My life is f–ked up.”
Similarly, Spears admitted to lying to “the whole world” about being “happy” when she actually cried “every day” under the 13-year conservatorship controlled by her now-estranged father, Jamie Spears.
Spears previously described being placed in a California mental health facility against her will in 2019. FilmMagic
She questioned how she could “make a living for so many people” on tour while under a conservatorship. Getty Images
The former shock jock and the Grammy winner both also described having no access to their money.
“I have $15,” Williams — whose bank, Wells Fargo, froze her accounts in 2022 after determining she was “incapacitated” — said on Power 105.1 FM.
Britney, for her part, questioned how she could “make a living for so many people” on tour and during her Las Vegas residency but had to get approval from her dad for even the most mundane purchases.
“I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work and provide money and work for myself and pay other people. It makes no sense. The laws need to change,” she argued.
An LA judge freed Spears later in 2021. REUTERS
Williams, however, remains in treatment. Getty Images
Ultimately, the judge sided with Britney, freeing her later in 2021 and declaring that her conservatorship — which began in 2008 following a highly publicized public breakdown — was “no longer required.”
Williams, however, remains in treatment, where her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, has claimed she was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia.
The Daytime Emmy nominee insisted on “The Breakfast Club” that she is “not cognitively impaired” and will continue to fight the “broken” system until she is emancipated.
