Wendy Williams looks back on divorce: 'I was probably too much for him'
Wendy Williams doesn't hold back, ever.
In a new conversation with CNN news anchor Don Lemon for Interview magazine, she opened up about life after divorce. The TV star and Kevin Hunter, her husband of nearly 22 years and the father of her adult son, ended their relationship in 2019, with her alleging that he had been "a serial cheat" throughout their time together, even fathering a child with another woman. She filed for divorce in April of that year, and he publicly apologized to the host of the Wendy Williams Show and her fans for his "recent actions," although he didn't name them.
Lemon asked Williams if being so open about her private life affects her on-air persona at all.
"Definitely" Williams answered. "When we were married, I was very happy. But I had to make sure that when he and I divorced, my life wouldn't suffer, because if my life suffered, then that meant my son’s life would suffer, too. I loved Kevin and he loved me, but I was probably too much for him."
She explained that her successful career was actually an obstacle in their relationship.
"I guess he found somebody who was just regular and who would cater to his every need. I tried, but hell, I gotta get up in the morning," she said. "The idea that the show wasn't called The Wendy Hunter Show was a big source of problems. If somebody called him Mr. Williams, all of a sudden a sunny day would turn into a storm cloud. I'm disappointed in him, but I quickly got over that because anger causes wrinkles."
Lemon also asked whether people should be worried about Williams, 56. Without hesitation, she said no, but she did reference her past addictions to drugs and alcohol.
"But that's a fair question because I did have many problems in my 20s with the white. I played that out in my [Lifetime] movie where, I think, I fell asleep with a Champagne bottle in the bed, and Kevin had me in a sober house," she said. "But that was only because the girl he had an affair with was about to have a baby, and he needed to put me someplace where I couldn't watch TV. He took away my phone. He took away my cash. He took away everything."
Williams also spoke about Mike Esterman, a contractor she dated briefly following the split. She revealed last month on her talk show that the two are no longer seeing each other, but it sounds like they were at the time of her talk with Lemon.
"I'm interviewing Mike. He's not my boyfriend," she said. "He's my special friend. We hold hands and hook arms and eat off each others' plates."
Besides her love life, the blunt TV host described how she wants to be remembered.
"As the one bright spot in the middle of an otherwise complicated day," she said. "When people think of my name, I want them to smile."
She said that she thinks they do that — secretly.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
