The Breakfast Club - Exclusive: Wendy Williams taking legal action because her medical records leaked?

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

In this episode Loren brings you an exclusive update on the Wendy Williams conservatorship saga.  Following reports on sources that Wendy Williams has been diagnosed again with dementia — Loren has spoken to her attorney Joe Tacopina.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite-sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt. A young mother vanished without a trace after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend, 2016. No goodbyes, no clues, just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Let's start with a quick puzzle. The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land? Jeopardy Truthers believe in? I guess they would be Ken's. conspiracy theorists. That's right. To give you the answers, and you still blew it.

The Puzzler. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need to embrace this community. Listen to San Diego FC behind the flow On the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Noah and I'm 13 and I started this podcast

because honestly adults don't ask the right questions. Now you know with Noah de Barroso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means for the rest of you. It's not the news. It's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it. Politics is wild and I'm definitely not here to payment, but I'm here to make sense of it. Listen to Now You Know with Noah DeBarrasso on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm a homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. You know if you don't lie about that, right? Lauren came in hot. Hey, y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa, and this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is your daily dig on all things. Culture, entertainment news, and all of the conversations that shake the room, baby.

I guess we could do the behind the scenes of the grind check. And it's been a little minute since we took the time and did that. Back on the grind. It's always good to check on the end with how you're feeling, what you're doing, what you got going on. Well, I just got back from Puerto Rico. I've been traveling, traveling, traveling, and I was there with my family, my cousin, who's also my god's sister, Ardia, married her husband. Shout out to the Moors, the theme of the world.

wedding was I love you more so yes I got to witness her be married and it was just amazing my family was there she's just so crazy because I mean she's my older cousin and she's older than me you know as my god sister but so she's always you know been doing like grown up things before I did but it's just crazy I was just you know looking at my other cousins that were there and I was just like wow we really we're grown up now like we're adults like this is a thing. We're at a wedding. We're just like just the conversations we were having about buying homes and just, you know, all of that stuff. I'm like, man, we're here. We're grown as hell now.

But it was a good time. Always a good time my family. Y'all know I love my. I talk a lot about my family in a podcast so you guys know that I'm super close to my family. So it was a great time. First time that I took off of work. Look, I don't even want to say it loud. I took off of work for a day at the breakfast club. And I felt so guilty doing it. I felt so guilty. Oh my God, I felt like a failure. But we closed out the wedding weekend. You know, we just party. We had a good time to celebrate us all being together and being there and all the things. And I wanted to be able to be present a bit. It's hard to do that, working in, you know, this lane of things because I have to know what's going on. Who's seeing what? Who's doing what? Developing and working on angles,

trying to get conversation going that isn't already happening about things. You know, it just can be a lot to deal with while also trying to be fully locked into your fans. So it felt good to actually be able to take the day. And I was telling my friend who was there with me that, like me and who were talking about the trip and I was saying that the full time I was there, I didn't really feel like vacation. It didn't feel like vacation, honestly, until Sunday. Saturday was like semi-sunday. I felt like, okay, I'm on a vacation.

like I can actually disconnect and stop watching what's happening in the world and all the things. And I want to be able to do more of that. I just don't know what that balance looks like in this industry. So that's one of the conversations I want to bring here to Brown Girl grinding into the latest with Lauren the Rosa is that balance of things, you know, as I'm growing and I'm learning this industry and, you know, all the things, right? But getting on back to the latest, talking about balance and family, Wendy Williams, it's so crazy because every. Every time I think about, am I doing something wrong by taking a break or by prioritizing myself or anything like that? I swear, y'all, I think about Wendy Williams.

I always do. Not that I'm comparing myself to her, but just seeing, you know, how it didn't be very well known that she didn't put her health first over career. And, you know, we see where she is with family and trying to figure out getting out of the conservatorship, just all those things. have so many thoughts in my mind every time I think about just how strenuous working in a fast-based industry can be and where I don't want things to end up, but also just watching her and just wishing the best for her, you know, no matter where it works out, whether she stays in a

guardianship or she does not, just wishing the best for her. So over the weekend, in the end of last week, we had talked about Wendy Williams because there was a report that came out that Wendy Williams had completed all of the testing and the scans that were needed to determine whether or not she was competent enough to make her own decisions and should she or should she not be in the guardianship. Now last we talked about this just for a quick recap, I told you guys that nothing has actually been decided on the guardianship indefinitely. So right now there is a hold on the guardianship. So Wendy Williams will be in the guardianship until November, and then in November, the judge will make a decision long term.

Now, according to the reports that went down last week, and again, there was a letter that was submitted to the judge that was from her guardian. The letter basically said, or her guardian's attorney, excuse me, and the letter basically said, look, testing is complete. Here are all the things we think that you should deal with first when it comes to her guardianship, and then we can go back to that any lawsuit, but first we need to know what's about to happen. And who are we about to deal with?

Is Wendy going to be in a conservatorship or is she not? What's about to happen with her husband, Kevin Hunter, Senior, and his asks for money and everything he's saying about the guardianship. Her family has issues with the guardianship. Like, let's deal with all the mess. Figure out who's, you know, about to be. We only need one chef in the kitchen. Who's it going to be?

And then we move forward with all the smaller things, the lawsuit and all the things against A&E currently, which is because of that Wendy Williams documentary that they did. So fast forward, when we talked about that, I had mentioned. mentioned, and I reported this on the Breakfast Club, I also talked a bit about it here, but I mentioned that in the paperwork that was submitted to the judge that we were able to see the media, there was no mention of her actual test results. However, there was an exclusive report that was put out there by People Magazine. They had it on a source that Wendy Williams testing had read that she actually was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia again, which is

what she was saying she did not have and which is why she was saying she wanted the independent testing done. Now, her attorney, Joe Tecapena, released a statement to me in a few other outlets, and he said that those test results were BS, that the claim that the testing was done was BS. The testing has not been completed. He alleges it has not been completed by an independent doctor, which is what was ordered. Now, I don't know what's going on there. I tried to reach him back out to the attorney for the conservatorship to clarify some things. They haven't said anything. But I reached back out to Joe Tecapena because one of the things that happened over the weekend was, you know, Wendy Williams was out. And by the way, you know, she's been out looking good and

being able to do dinner with friends and all the, you know, those things. So that's good to see that she's getting some time outside of the facility where she's living here in New York. But she was out and about. She ran into TMZ and she ran into a few other outlets. But she gave an interview to page six where she talked about the fact that because her attorney, when he gave me the statement about the testing in response to those reports, he was pissed. He was so upset. He was so upset that her medical anything was being discussed. Now, let me tell y'all, I talk to Joe Tocopina today, just touching base, seeing what's going on, trying to get an update. And he said to me, I want to read verbatim. Wendy Williams and her legal team are definitely exploring the idea

of taking legal action following Wendy's medical reports being allegedly leaked to the media. Now, again, the reports that he's referring to, it's not. I don't believe it's the letter to the judge. It can't be because that letter didn't say anything besides the tests were complete. But he might be, you know, he might have something to argue there. I'm not 100% sure on that. But I know more directly he's referring to the sourced information that was given to People magazine about the actual test results. Because he's alleging that that report is not accurate.

And he's saying even if it's not accurate, that's still a HIPAA violation for Wendy. So they're definitely exploring the third. of taking legal action when it comes to this whole conversation because legally, no one should have known what any results were at all. That's supposed to be a private situation. So let me just tell y'all, Joe Takapina has been, you know, every, I've been reaching out to him every since I've met him following the work that he did with ASEP Rocky. And he is very, he's a very thorough attorney. Like, if he says he's going to do something, he does it, he does it 200 to 300 percent. So her attorneys were very upset

About the fact that their information had leaked So we got to just wait to see what's going to happen I mean I you know me asking him Hey are you guys going to take legal action That was the first thing I thought of Only because I'm like With Britney Spirits we didn't know what was going on with her At all and then we get the information about Wendy

And obviously that's supposed to be something that's protected Whether it's in their favor or it's not If she wants to share it that's different But it's up to her to want to make that decision to do that. So I kind of knew that something in that lane might be, you know,

being discussed. So I just asked him today and he, when I say very thorough and very to the point, he had no problem. First thing he shot back was we definitely are exploring that.

And like, I'm, you know, just keep me posted on that. But it's just a very unfortunate situation because either way this goes, whether Wendy does need the guardianship or she doesn't,

it's just unfortunate because it does seem like, you know, her life is just different now. It's very different than what we got to witness. for all of the years and the decades of Wendy Williams. And I know from having conversations with her a while back that this is not a place

that anybody wants to be in. You know what I mean? Like no one wants to navigate all the things she's having to navigate and do it publicly whatsoever. But, you know, she's here now and she's continuing to try and build a team around her. I know she had mentioned in this clip another attorney's name, which I'd never heard this attorney's name before. So this must be because Joe Tecapena is her personal attorney.

he hasn't been granted the ability to be her attorney in the guardianship so the guardian the other attorney that she mentioned I'm sure is the attorney that is more directly

working with her on the guardianship so you know she's trying to get team together trying to figure it out but it's just unfortunate to see because who wants to live like this

no one wants to be able to not balance their personal time their family with work and health and all the things and it seems like for Wendy things

at one point things crashed and burn and she's trying to put the pieces back together to the puzzle and it just seems like it's such a slow crawl for her to be able to do so. So wishing her the best, I'll be back here with all the updates and all the latest as they come.

Just wanted to give you guys an exclusive check-in. We'll be back tomorrow with a full episode of all the things. At the end of the day, there's always a lot to talk about. And as I tell you guys, every single episode, y'all can be anywhere with anybody talking about it, but you choose to be right here with me. I appreciate you guys so much, my lowriders,

and I will see you in my next episode. I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite-sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt. A young mother vanished without a trace

after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend, 2016. No goodbyes, no clues. Just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's start with a quick puzzle. The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land?

Jeopardy Truthers believe in. I guess they would be conspiracy theorists. That's right. To give you the answers, and you still blew it. The Puzzler. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team.

to embrace this community. Listen to San Diego FC behind the flow on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Get fired up, y'all. Season two of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people, an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapino, to the show, and we had a blast. Take a listen.

Sue and I were, like, riding the lime bikes. other day, and we're like, we're like, people write bikes because it's fun. We got more incredible guests like Megan in store, plus news of the day and more. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network. This is an IHeart podcast.