by Thinus Ferreira
In April South African viewers will get to see the sordid details of her personal life story, as well as the shocking drama behind-the-scenes as production on her American TV talk show crumbled, when Lifetime will broadcast both the Wendy Williams made-for-TV movie, immediately followed by the eye-popping documentary.
The former female radio shock jock turned TV talk show host Wendy Williams partnered with A+E Networks' Lifetime channel in the United States to tell her life story following the implosion of her marriage to Kevin Hunter, after his infidelity that led to lurid tabloid headlines and almost spelt the end of her The Wendy Williams Show seen on BET (DStv 129) in Africa.
The biopic, Wendy Williams: Hot Topic, as well as the startling documentary, Wendy Williams: What a Mess!, will be broadcast in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa on Saturday 10 April on Lifetime (DStv 131), two and a half months after it was shown in America on 30 January.
Interestingly, Lifetime has scheduled the Wendy Williams event night for a Saturday night in Africa as well, similar to America where both broadcasts became the most-watched programming on pay-TV for the night.
The biopic, Wendy Williams: Hot Topic is first on Saturday 10 April at 19:20, starring Ciera Payton in the lead role.
The film that starts in the present, rewinds and pulls back the curtain on Wendy's childhood years, her early work life trauma at radio stations including her drug use and rape, as well as the start of her TV talk show in New York.
In recent years her talk show almost derailed following health issues and her controlling husband who cheated on her and had a child with another woman living just a few kilometres away.
It led to Wendy escaping the "prison" Kevin allegedly built up around her after confining her in a so-called "sober house" where she couldn't speak to anybody and couldn't leave except with guards to record episodes of her show.
The documentary, Wendy Williams: What a Mess!, with a crying Wendy Williams speaking directly to camera, is also filled with fascinating first-person interviews including her parents, family members and friends, and talk show producers.
The documentary is filled with more startling revelations and insights, for instance how Wendy was essentially "held captive" by her husband and decided to escape from a car in order to make a secret meeting she had set up to file for divorce, the humiliation she experienced in childhood and how it turned her into a determined loner driven to succeed, as well as her notorious feuds with celebrities from Mariah Carey to Whitney Houston.
In the documentary viewers her more about the shocking circumstances that led to her divorce, her childhood, the untold turmoil behind-the-scenes of her TV talk show, and the private darkness she has had to endure.
