For anyone with an interest in elder law, capacity law, and guardianship litigation, Dan Adler’s (“Mr. Adler”) March 6, 2025 Vanity Fair article, Wendy Williams, Her Guardian, and the Age of the Celebrity Conservatorship, is an interesting and worthwhile read.

American celebrity and former daytime talk show host Wendy Williams (“Ms. Williams”) has been subject to a court-ordered conservatorship since in or around 2022 after her bank apparently reported that she was “incapacitated” and a “victim of undue influence and financial exploitation”.

In or around 2024, Ms. Williams’ team disclosed that she had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia. She currently resides in an assisted living facility in New York.

In recent months, Ms. Williams made headlines after publicly speaking out against her conservatorship, denying that she has dementia, and reporting that she felt like a prisoner.

Conservatorship, which is akin to the guardianship regime in Ontario^[1], is described by Mr. Adler as a “historically a semi-esoteric legal practice” that has gained considerable pop culture attention in recent years due to the likes of Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes being subject to conservatorship orders.

Mr. Adler notably spotlights the difficult and often conflict-ridden role that New York based elder-law lawyer Sabrina Morrisey takes on when she is appointed as someone’s guardian. Ms. Morrisey is Ms. Williams’ court-appointed guardian and is tasked with overseeing Ms. Williams’ welfare and finances. In light of this, she has been the subject of public complaints by Ms. Williams, condemnation from Ms. Williams’ family members, and has been the target of public backlash online.

Mr. Adler’s article highlights the inherent tension that guardians face when trying to balance the rights of an incapable person while managing their affairs. As Ms. Morrisey explained,

guardianships are often misunderstood . . . the aim is to maximize a person’s ability to make choices, at least within the boundaries of safety and bureaucratic constraint. “I had one woman who all she wanted to do is listen to Frank Sinatra,” . . . “If she said to me, I’m going to stand here and jump out the window, we wouldn’t let her do that.”

Mr. Adler goes on to note that especially when Britney Spears’ conservatorship was terminated in late 2021,

advocates saw an opportunity for a broader re-evaluation of guardianship practices. The director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Disability Rights Program, Zoe Brennan-Krohn, believes the mechanism should only be used as an absolute last resort, and wondered if any less restrictive options had been tried in Williams’s case.

Even if a guardian “started with the best of intentions,” Brennan-Krohn said, “it is very hard to come back from the real harm to your personhood that people feel when they are told it doesn’t matter what you want.”

While there is a risk of exploitation within the conservatorship regime, Ms. Morrisey is reported to have stated that she would have

nothing to gain from restricting Williams’s movements, and that, given the level of judicial oversight, “If you wanted to take money or do something that wasn’t legal or proper, a guardianship would be the absolute wrong place to do it.”

. . . “As a guardian, you are a fiduciary,” she said. “I can’t let whatever happens in the public affect how I respond to her and how I continue to help her.”

The recent flux of high-profile celebrity conservatorships and the intrinsically restrictive nature of the conservatorship regime offers a valuable reminder of the importance of turning one’s mind to planning for potential future illness, disability, or incapacity. For many, executing power of attorney documents can form a part of this planning so the guardianship regime does not have to be resorted to. For more on powers of attorney, see Whaley Estate Litigation on Powers of Attorney, and for more on Ontario’s Guardianship regime, see Whaley Estate Litigation on Guardianship.

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[1] Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c. 30, ss. 22-42; 55-68.