Speak No Evil: The real reason why Wendy Williams refuses to badmouth her estranged husband
Article By Ainsley Harris // EEW Magazine // Divorce
Guest Wendy Williams appears on daytime talk show “The View” to discuss her personal life and the upcoming season of “The Wendy Williams Show (Credit: Walt Disney TV)
You may not agree with everything Wendy Williams says or does, but there is a lesson to be learned from her behavior amid a painful divorce.
The straight-shooting host of her namesake daytime talker, “The Wendy Williams Show,” who rarely minces words when voicing her opinion, refuses to publicly lambast her estranged husband, Kevin Hunter.
“You just can't throw away 25 years and then start talking recklessly about the other person," the 55-year-old said during a panel discussion with “The View” co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Abby Huntsman, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain.
"Otherwise, what does that say about you?" she asked.
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In April, after almost 22 years of marriage, the talk diva filed for divorce from her husband and manager after his torrid affair produced a love child with the other woman. Embarrassing headlines airing all the couple’s dirty laundry were everywhere and became the undoing of their two decades old union.
"Infidelity is one thing, a full baby is a whole other topic," said Williams who is in promo mode for the show’s Season 11 premiere on Monday, Sept. 16.
Though the split has taken a toll on her family, Williams said her 19-year-old son, Kevin Jr., is “doing very well.”
“He’s in a good space and he only wants to see me and his dad happy,” she said.
The comedian, fashion designer and socialite stressed that Hunter, who is also the former executive producer of her wildly successful program, “is not a bad person.”
She maintains that he simply committed a transgression that she is unwilling to tolerate. "I’m not changing Pampers, I want to be pampered," she said, drawing laughter from the audience.
"If we don't laugh then we'll cry,” the emotional entertainer continued, adding, “I've learned from my mother how to make lemons into lemonade in life."
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In a recent NY Times interview, the veteran media personality, who got her start in radio, said, “Kevin had a major indiscretion that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life, an indiscretion that I will not deal with. He will always be my family, because we have a 19-year-old son, and we were together for 25 years and married for 21. But there was no vacillating. I’m out. That’s all I can say. People want me to hate and scream and talk. I won’t.”
Though many high-profile couples go to war with each other and get lowdown and dirty during proceedings, Williams will not follow suit.
As she teared up, she told NY Times, “People say, ‘Keep it as clean as you can, because you have a child together.’ That’s not the main reason to keep it clean. The main reason I won’t talk badly about Kevin is that he was my first true love.”
The only time Williams freely expresses her truest, darkest feelings is “when I get in my apartment and the door is closed and I am talking to myself in the mirror.”
