Sherri Shepherd says she's 'not mad' that Wendy Williams won't watch her new show: 'She's going through a lot'

Sherri Shepherd gets it.

When she was asked, during an Instagram Live this weekend, about Wendy Williams having said in an interview that she won't be watching Shepherd's new daytime talk show, Sherri, when it debuts in the fall, Shepherd said she wasn't upset by it.

"I did hear Wendy say she will not watch me on the new show, and that's OK," Shepherd said. "You know, I understand. I'm not mad at Wendy. She's going through a lot. I would say that everybody should be praying for Wendy right now."

As revealed in February, Sherri will air in the timeslots that previously belonged to The Wendy Williams Show in TV markets, and the popular program is ending after Shepherd and others filled in for Williams all of last season. Williams had taken what was supposed to be a hiatus from her show in July 2021, amid health issues including Graves' disease, but has since disclosed that her financial assets have been frozen. Her former financial adviser, Lori Schiller, claimed the TV star is "of unsound mind" and needed a guardianship, according to court documents. Williams, however, has strenuously denied it. Just last week, she made a rare public appearance at the Met Gala afterparty.

"I'm very concerned," Shepherd said in the new video. "I'm really, truly concerned about her, because I don't feel like there’s anybody over there protecting her. And it's really hard when there’s no protection around you, and you just have people hanging on. So, uh, yeah. But I'm not mad at Wendy because she won't watch my show."

When someone asked Shepherd if she thought Williams was just bitter, Shepherd said no.

"Wendy is not bitter, at least not about me," Shepherd replied. "There's a lot going on in her life right now."

Williams had said she does like Shepherd, but she knows "what she's gonna be doing, and that's really not my thing."

In her response, Shepherd noted that the two had never "run in the same circles," because Shepherd lives in Los Angeles, while Williams is a New Yorker.

"There was a time, at the beginning of my career, at The View, I used to perform at Caroline's [Comedy Club]. And Wendy had a comedy night at Caroline's, and I would do it. And we were very friendly. But sometimes stuff don't pan out, as far as friendships."

Shepherd pointed out that Williams had been very honest on her show about preferring not to befriend celebrities.

"She would say she really wasn't trying to be friends with people, cause it would make it hard to talk about them," Shepherd said. "So maybe that was one of the reasons why we never had a friendship."