Wendy Williams Says She's Moving Out of Sober House After Filing for Divorce from Kevin Hunter
Wendy Williams has broken her silence after filing for divorce from Kevin Hunter last week.
The Wendy Williams Show star spoke out while hosting her show live Monday morning, reflecting on the motto of her Hot Topics segment, “Their business is our business.”
“It’s crazy ’cause now my business is your business,” Williams said with a laugh. “It’s kind of funny. Turnabouts a fair game, I get it.”
Williams, who recently revealed that she is living in a sober house, said she had a “really good weekend” and got together with six of her friends from the facility. (Two of them are her sponsors.)
“I’m moving out of the sober house in just a few days, you know,” she revealed. “It’ll be Wendy on her own.”
“I have to tell you, you know, I’ve been dealing with issues with addiction, alcoholism, and I have a whole new life that I planned for myself and my son,” she continued. “Believe me you, when you lay in a room with no TV and four gray walls all day … this is my life in the sober house, it’s one of the best things, honestly, that could have ever happened to me.”
Williams, who has long been open about her past addiction to cocaine, said speaking candidly about her struggles on her show has been hugely beneficial.
“You wear a different mask when you’re out here,” she said. “Everybody has things in their life that they’re … not ready to share with the world.”
“Addressing my sobriety, my addiction, head-on has really helped me sort out every single compartment of my life,” she said. “I have a commitment to me and my son to come out of here better, stronger and faster than ever. And by the way, I will still commit. … I commit that the motto of this show will always be, ‘Their business is our business.'”
Following two decades of marriage, Williams filed to legally end her marriage with Hunter on Thursday.
“Thank you to everyone for respecting the family’s privacy during this time. Kevin is supportive of Wendy and they are working through this process together,” the personal representative for Williams told PEOPLE in a statement. “No additional comment will be provided at this time.”
A representative for her show also released the following statement: “Wendy and her family have been a part of Debmar-Mercury for over 10 years,. We respect their privacy regarding personal matters. As always, we remain committed to bringing an entertaining and topical show to our viewers.”
Williams, 54, and Hunter, 46, wed on Nov. 30, 1997, and share son Kevin Jr., 19.
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The breakup news comes after a difficult time for the TV personality. She took an extended hiatus from The Wendy Williams Show from January until March, saying she needed to recover from a fractured shoulder and take care of herself due to her battle with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid.
In 2017, Williams told PEOPLE that Hunter had been a pillar of strength as she grappled with her diagnosis.
“My husband was extremely concerned,” she said. “He’s not just my husband, he’s my business partner, one of the executive producers on the show and he’s also my manager. He and I are glued at the hip.”
“He was with me every step,” she added. “For him, seeing me go through all of this, it’s really been trying on him. I’ve been concerned about him. I’m like, ‘Don’t worry about me!’”
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They had their struggles, though: Hunter cheated on Williams after she gave birth to their son, a painful period she described in her memoir Wendy’s Got the Heat.
“It has made our marriage — and I know this is cliché, but it’s true — it’s made our marriage stronger,” she told VladTV in 2013. “No, I’m not back to the girl I was before him, because when you get stung like that, you never go back to who you were — only a fool does. But I love him, and he loves me, and we addressed it head-on.”
Still, they’ve plagued by persistent rumors of Hunter’s alleged further infidelities ever since.
“I stand by my guy,” Williams said on her show in September 2017. “All is well in Hunterville. Don’t believe the hype and if there was hype, believe me you — I would let you know!”
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When she came back from hiatus last month, she once again refuted reports of a split.
“I’m still very much in love with my husband and anyone who’s been married … you know,” she said.
But earlier Thursday, Williams hosted her show without wearing her wedding ring — or mentioning any marital issues — just before news of her divorce broke.
The Wendy Williams Show airs weekdays (check local listings).