Wendy Williams swallowed her pride and revealed to her TV audience that she was a resident in a drug rehab halfway house in Queens, NY. According to the Daily Mail, the 54-year-old daytime talk host is picked up early on weekdays and driven to the studio where her popular talk show is taped.
On Tuesday, Wendy was pictured leaving Pure Recover Network’s Sober House residential apartments and getting into a chauffeured Mercedes Benz for the trip to the studio. She was dressed in a puffy leopard print jacket and black capri leggings with white boat sneakers.
Wendy looked tired and withdrawn as she arrived back at the Pure Recovery Network Sober House apartment, where she lives with “smelly boys” who hog the TV and have become like “family” to her.
Wendy is being treated for alcohol and prescription drug addiction, according to multiple reports. Some of the residents are there by court order. But sources close to the talk show host said Wendy voluntarily entered the program to save her marriage.
According to a source, Wendy’s husband Kevin Hunter told her he would stop seeing his mistress, masseuse Sharina Hudson, if she kicked her drug and alcohol habit.
“She was clean for a minute,” said a source familiar with the situation. “Then she found out he lied about leaving [his mistress], and she fell off the wagon.”
“She loves him so much,” said the source. “She can’t see her life without him.”
According to the Daily Mail, Wendy fell and fractured her shoulder late last year after she confronted Kevin about seeing Sharina, 33. Wendy allegedly hired a private investigator who told her Kevin was sill seeing Sharina.
Another source claims Wendy was ordered to enter a drug rehab program if she hoped to avoid cancellation of her television contract after staff members complained about her erratic behavior on the set.
Wendy was faced with a dilemma: either enter rehab, or continue to self-medicate with the drugs and alcohol that comforted her when she’s alone in the couple’s huge $2 million five-bedroom mansion in New Jersey.
Wendy reportedly entered the Pure Recovery Network after first traveling to Delray Beach, Florida, where she lived at a rehab center there.
According to the Daily Mail, Kevin traveled to Florida with Sharina in tow. Sharina remained in a hotel while he visited with his wife.
But the mom-of-one reportedly continued taking drugs and drink alcohol at the rehab facility in Florida.
Wendy broke the shocking news of her living arrangements to her TV audience on Tuesday’s show, hours after the Daily Mail UK contacted her for a comment.
Fighting back tears, Wendy said she was living in the Sober House and attending meetings around the city.
The revelation conflicted with her previous statements that she was being treated for complications related to the thyroid condition Graves’ disease.
Wendy’s reps also stated she was taking an extended leave for “medical reasons.”
But over the past two weeks, the Daily Mail photographers observed the former radio DJ arriving and leaving the Sober House residence.
After taping her show, she is driven back to the facility by her husband, Kevin, in a green Rolls Royce SUV.
The building that houses the 6,400 sq. ft. Sober House boutique apartments is situated above a barber shop on Pearson Street in Long Island City, NY. The barber shop occupies the space that was previously leased by a car and limo service.
“There are some shady characters coming and going from that place,” said one observer.
Staff at the Otis & Finn shop described the apartments as a halfway house for people addicted to drugs and alcohol.
The scene outside the Sober House was a beehive of activity on Wednesday morning, as photographers and onlookers vied for sidewalk space.
The Pure website says guests are treated for recovery from a “full range of addictive and co-occurring disorders” such as “substance abuse, alcohol dependence, sex addiction, eating disorders and trauma.”
Photos by Wagner AZ / BACKGRID
