Before Wendy Williams began her career in television, she had a successful career as a radio DJ and host in New York, where she earned a reputation for being a “shock jockette.” Let’s know more about her below.
Wikipedia Profile & Background
| Real Name: | Wendy Joan Williams |
| Date of Birth: | July 18, 1964 |
| Age: | 58 years old @ 2022 |
| State of Origin: | New Jersey, U.S. |
| Place of Birth: | Asbury Park, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Husband: | Bert Girigorie (m. 1994; div. 1995)​ – Kevin Hunter (m. 1999; div. 2019)​ |
| Occupation: | Broadcaster – Media Personality – Writer – Actress – Producer |
| Net Worth: | < $20 million |
| Education: | Â Northeastern University (BA) |
| Children: | 1, Kevin Samuel Hunter |
| Marital Status: | Divorced |
Wendy Williams Biography
Wendy Williams Hunter or Wendy Joan Williams was born July eighteenth, nineteen sixty four, she is a writer and broadcaster from the United States. She hosted the nationally syndicated television talk show The Wendy Williams Show from 2008 to 2022.
Williams began her career as a radio DJ and host, immediately becoming recognized in New York as a shock jockette. She rose to prominence as the focus of the 2006 VH1 reality television series The Wendy Williams Experience, which chronicled events around her radio show.
Williams’ other projects include writing multiple books, appearing in films and television shows, touring her comedy show, and launching her own product lines, which include a fashion brand, a jewelry collection, and a wig line.
In 2009, Williams was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Wendy Williams Way, the street where she grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey, was renamed Wendy Williams Way on her 50th birthday.
Education Background
Williams graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1982, one of four black students in a class of 363. Her academic record contrasted with that of her older sister Wanda, who won a university scholarship when she was 16 years old.
Williams’ white peers considered her one of their own and freely used the word nigger around her because she was able to employ “white” diction rather than African-American Vernacular English. She didn’t get along with the other black students and claimed their only thing in common was using marijuana.
According to Williams, she did not listen to hip hop music but rather rock bands such as AC/DC because they were popular among her classmates. Her younger brother Thomas’s Little League Baseball games included her as an announcer.
Williams studied journalism at Northeastern University in Boston with the goal of becoming a television anchor. She shifted from television communications to radio communications less than a month after starting because she could improve her career faster—a choice that her parents opposed.
Williams earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication with a minor in journalism to placate her parents. She worked as a disc jockey for the campus radio station WRBB, where her first celebrity interviewee was rapper LL Cool J. She recapped the soap operas Dallas and Dynasty on air as an intern for Matt Siegel at contemporary hit radio station WXKS-FM.
How old Is Wendy Williams – Age
Wendy Williams Hunter was born on the, 18th day of July, 1964. She was born in, Asbury Park, New Jersey, U.S. The tv host is currently at the age of 58 years old.
Where Is Wendy Williams From – Place of Birth
Wendy Joan Williams was born on July 18, 1964 in the city of Asbury Park, New Jersey, in the United States of America. Asbury Park is a coastal city on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It is included in the New York metropolitan area.
Family – Father & Mother
She is the second child to be born to Shirley (née Skinner) and Thomas Dwayne Williams and the second of three total children. Shirley, Wendy’s mother was a special education teacher, and Thomas was a teacher and school principal who, in 1969, became the first black school administrator in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Together, the couple held a total of three master’s degrees. As a result of the race riots that occurred in Asbury Park in 1970, the family decided to relocate to the mostly white and upper middle class suburb of Wayside, which is located within Ocean Township, New Jersey.
They were members of a Baptist church and spent their summers at Oak Bluffs, a popular destination for African Americans in the state of Massachusetts. When Williams was a child, the medical professionals advised that she take medication to help regulate her hyperactivity.
After she started gaining weight in elementary school, her parents placed her on a diet, which ultimately led to her having a negative self-image regarding her body. Williams participated in the Girl Scouts as a Brownie and worked as a candy striper as a volunteer. Her family always imagined that she would work in the medical field.
Husband – First And Second
Williams claimed she was raped on a date in college and in the 1980s by R&B star Sherrick. After splitting up with her partner, she underwent a six-week abortion in 1991. Bertrand “Bert” Girigorie, Williams’ first spouse, later died.
In her memoirs, she refers to him by a pseudonym and states that they parted after five months and divorced roughly eighteen months later. Williams met Kevin Hunter, her second husband, in 1994 and married him on November 30, 1999.
She miscarried several times before giving birth to their son, Kevin Samuel, on August 18, 2000. Williams filed for divorce in April 2019 because to irreconcilable differences after Hunter fathered a child with a lover. Despite the fact that her divorce was finalized in January 2020, her legal surname is Hunter.
Williams considers herself “a multicultural woman who happens to be Black” as a result of her suburban upbringing. Williams considers himself a Christian but no longer attends church. She believes “God is everywhere” and prays “every day, several times a day”.
Williams supports abortion rights. She backed Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election and pushed an NAACP voter helpline. Williams posed for PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign that year, declaring, “We should all attempt to be comfortable in our own skin and let the animals keep theirs.” She voted in favor of removing the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State House in 2015.
Early Career
Williams began her career as a disc jockey for the small, calypso and reggae-oriented WVIS in Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands, two weeks after graduating from Northeastern, but she loathed the gig since she did not learn as much about radio from her colleagues as she expected.
Williams began sending resumes and sample tapes of herself to other radio stations due to low salary and isolation from her family. She left WVIS after eight months to work at WOL in Washington, D.C., but found the station’s oldies radio format incompatible with her personality.
Williams proceeded to send cassettes to other stations and began as a weekend fill-in on New York City’s WQHT on November 1, 1987. She left WOL after the urban contemporary station hired her full-time to handle nocturnal shifts.
After two years at WQHT, Williams was let go and briefly worked overnight shifts at WPLJ before being hired by WRKS. After WBLS began poaching its personnel, WRKS handed Williams a non-compete provision and a permanent morning position in May 1990.
Wake-Up Club
She was a member of the station’s “Wake-Up Club,” along with Jeff Foxx and Spider Webb. During a section called “Dish the Dirt,” Williams began chatting about rappers and celebrities. Those she mentioned, including Bill Cosby and Russell Simmons, called the station and unsuccessfully sought her dismissal.
In April 1991, as she developed in popularity as a radio personality, WRKS promoted Williams to host the evening drive time slot. By 1993, she was the highest-rated host in her time slot in the New York City market, and she was named R&B Major Market Radio Air Personality of the Year by Billboard.
Williams co-hosted the syndicated Top 30 USA song countdown program on American Urban Radio Networks in 1993 and USA Music Magazine in 1994. By mid-1994, WRKS’s ratings had fallen due to competition from Emmis Broadcasting’s hip hop-oriented WQHT.
In an effort to reverse the trend, WRKS moved Williams back to mornings on September 26, 1994, where she aired a program dubbed “Wendy and Company”. However, less than three months later, Emmis purchased WRKS and sent Williams to WQHT, where she began hosting the evening drive time slot on December 12, 1994.
They believed Williams would better represent WQHT’s younger demographic when WRKS was transformed into an urban adult contemporary outlet oriented toward older consumers.
Book Authorship
Williams has written three nonfiction books. Wendy’s Got the Heat, her autobiography co-written with New York Daily News journalist Karen Hunter, was published in August 2003. It is about her life, including her early difficulties, drug addiction, and marriages.
It debuted at number nine on The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction, published by Atria. In August 2004, the autobiography was reprinted in paperback, a month before the release of Williams’ second book, The Wendy Williams Experience, which includes celebrity gossip and interviews.
Ask Wendy, Williams’ advice book, was launched in May 2013. Williams authored columns for Honey and Life & Style magazines over the years. Williams has also authored several fiction books, including a trilogy about radio shock jock Ritz Harper’s life and career.
She and Hunter co-wrote the first two novels, Drama Is Her Middle Name (2006) and Is the Bitch Dead, or What? (2007). Ritz Harper Goes to Hollywood! was co-written by Zondra Hughes (2009). Ritz Harper was compared to Williams by the media. Hold Me in Contempt, Williams’ 2014 romantic novel, was published. She said it was co-written with a ghostwriter who was an English professor.
Music and Comedy Shows
In 2003, Williams interviewed Blu Cantrell, and the interview was published as a DVD with the singer’s album Bittersweet. Wendy Williams Brings the Heat: Volume 1 was published in June 2005 by Williams and Virgin Records and featured numerous rap performers such as M.O.P., Jadakiss, and Young Jeezy. According to Nielsen SoundScan, it sold 29,000 copies by November of that year.
Lipshtick invited Williams to perform in their inaugural all-female comedy series at the Venetian in Las Vegas in 2014. On July 11, 2014, Williams made her sold-out comic debut. “The Sit-down Comedy Tour” was the name of Williams’ comedy tour. After a sold-out debut in July, Williams returned to Lipshtick on October 31 and November 1, 2014.
On November 15, 2014, Williams held her “How You Laughin'” Comedy Series at NJPAC, which featured Luenell, Jonathan Martin, Pat Brown, Hadiyah Robinson, and Meme Simpson. Williams announced a 12-city comedy tour dubbed “The Wendy Williams Sit Down Tour: Too Real For Stand-Up” in 2015.
Products and Endorsements
Williams was a spokeswoman for a hip-hop clothing business while working for WRKS. She became a spokesman for George Veselles champagne and Alizé liqueurs in 2006. In 2012, Williams unveiled her “Adorn” jewelry and shoe brand on the shopping channel QVC.
The lawyer for the shoe company said she never paid the production cost. Williams offered a wig collection to internet merchants in 2013. In 2015, she offered a self-titled apparel brand on the shopping channel HSN, and the following year, she expanded the partnership by producing shoe and winter clothing collections.
Net Worth
Wendy Williams’ net worth is projected to be over $20 million as of December 2022. She rose to prominence after appearing in the reality television series ‘The Wendy Williams Experience’ in 2006. She was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009. Incase you missed it, read the full biography and net worth of, Malcolm Nuna here.