Wendy Williams Has Frontotemporal Dementia and Aphasia

Former daytime talk show host Wendy Williams, 59, has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, her team said in a news release Feb. 22.

Frontotemporal dementia is a result of damage to neurons in the frontal and temporal lobes in the brain, according to the National Institute on Aging. These areas of the brain are associated with personality, behavior and language. Primary progressive aphasia is a type of frontotemporal dementia that affects one’s ability to communicate. It tends to progress slowly, but symptoms get worse over time, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Most people with the condition eventually lose verbal and written communication skills, and they may lose the ability to understand language.

“In 2023, after undergoing a battery of medical tests, Wendy was officially diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia,” her team said in a release.

In 2022, actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia, and later it was announced that he has frontotemporal dementia.

Williams has been open about her struggles with other health issues, including Graves’ disease and lymphedema. She took a leave from her talk show, Wendy, in 2021, and in 2022, actress and comedian Sherri Shepherd took over as host of Sherri.

A new documentary, Where Is Wendy Williams?, premieres Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. Eastern on Lifetime and can also be streamed on a number of TV services. “The documentary provides a raw, honest and unfiltered reality of Wendy’s life,” says a Lifetime press release, “including mental and physical issues.”

Symptoms of frontotemporal dementia

Primary progressive aphasia is caused by an underlying brain disease. In some people, it’s a sign of Alzheimer’s disease, but in others — such as Williams, according to her team — it’s related to frontotemporal dementia.

Those with this form of dementia may act strangely in social situations, according to the National Institute on Aging, and they often don’t realize their behavior is unusual. Symptoms usually begin before age 65.

“Over the past few years, questions have been raised at times about Wendy’s ability to process information and many have speculated about Wendy’s condition, particularly when she began to lose words, act erratically at times, and have difficulty understanding financial transactions,” her team said in a release.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says symptoms of frontotemporal dementia can include:

• Problems planning and sequencing
• Difficulty prioritizing tasks or activities
• Repeating the same activity or saying the same word over and over
• Acting impulsively or saying or doing inappropriate things without considering how others perceive the behavior
• Becoming uninterested in family or activities they used to care about
• Displaying flat, exaggerated or improper emotions that seem disconnected from the situation
• Difficulty reading social signals, seeming to lack empathy
• Compulsive eating or taking food from others’ plates