Wendy Williams has filed for divorce from Kevin Hunter, her husband of 20 years, according to a divorce filing obtained by The Washington Post.
The host of ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ cited irreconcilable differences in the court records, which were filed on Wednesday in a New Jersey courthouse. Mary Vidas, an attorney for Blank Rome, confirmed the law firm is representing Williams but declined to comment further.
The news, first reported by Page Six on Thursday, arrives after weeks of speculation about the couple’s marriage and a particularly turbulent time for the 54-year-old daytime talk show host. Infidelity rumours have long dogged Hunter, prompting Williams to periodically defend their union on her nationally syndicated show.
Williams revealed on ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ last month that she had been living in a sober house. The host, who has talked openly about struggling with cocaine abuse during her days as a brash radio shock jock, did not say whether she was being treated for cocaine addiction. But her emotional on-air announcement intensified the scrutiny around Hunter, an executive producer on the show and Williams’s longtime manager, amid tabloid reports that he had a baby with another woman.
“Wendy and her family have been a part of Debmar-Mercury for over 10 years,” a spokesman for ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ said Thursday. “We respect their privacy regarding personal matters. As always, we remain committed to bringing an entertaining and topical show to our viewers.”
Williams addressed the rumours about her marriage in early March when she returned from a two-month hiatus, prompted by a series of public health struggles including her ongoing battle with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid.
“I’m still very much in love with my husband. I’m still wearing my ring,” Williams told viewers, flashing the massive diamond on her left hand.
Williams also flashed the sparkler in 2017 when she told viewers not to “believe the hype” amid the Daily Mail’s ongoing reports about her husband’s alleged affair.
Williams and Hunter, who have one child, married in 1999, according to the divorce filing, which also states that the “breakdown of the marriage” occurred six months ago. In her 2004 autobiography, ‘Wendy’s Got the Heat,’ Williams opened up about discovering, in 2001, that Hunter was having an affair. Their son was a baby at the time, Williams wrote, and separation was not an option.
The book also features Hunter’s perspective in a candid back-and-forth between the couple. Williams wrote that working past the affair made her “a better woman, a better wife and a better mother.” And she said it helped her career.
“I’m a better radio personality because I related now to the women who call up and talk about how their man cheated on them,” she wrote.
Williams was characteristically open with her audience, whom she lovingly refers to as her co-hosts, when she returned from her hiatus last month.
“Marriages have ebbs and flows, marriage isn’t easy. And don’t ask me about mine until you see this gone,” she said, gesturing toward her wedding ring. “And it ain’t going anywhere, not in this lifetime.”
But Williams was not wearing the diamond as she hosted her show on Thursday, instead sporting a sparkly floral stand-in.
