Photo Credit: Wendy Williams/Instagram
For some time now it appeared that Wendy Williams’ ex-husband Kevin Hunter got what he wanted out of their marriage. He made his money, proverbially pushed her down the steps and ran off with his decades younger side chick. Realizing how bad things looked, according to Williams, he had been a big help to her in recent months while she’s been trying to recover from her health issues to make a return to her show as quickly as possible. But after the surprise announcement of her replacement by Sherri Shepherd, Kevin’s got something to say.
It’s now going on 3 years since he was let go from The Wendy Williams Show as Executive Producer, a week after Williams filed for divorce, he’s now suing Debmar-Mercury citing wrongful termination. Not only is he claiming he was fired just because of his marital status with Williams at the time but that he was responsible for a lot of the success of The Wendy Williams Show.
“Hunter was one of the reasons behind the Wendy William Show’s tremendous success and everything seemed to go south after he left,” Hunter’s attorney, Abe George, told Page Six in a statement Wednesday morning.
“Mr. Hunter was unlawfully terminated solely due to his marital status to Wendy, which is contrary to human rights laws in NYC.” George added, “This lawsuit seeks to compensate Mr. Hunter for the sweat equity that he put into the show and that Debmar-Mercury will continue to profit on even in their new reincarnation of the Wendy Williams Show,” pointing to Sherri Shepherd’s announced takeover.
Hunter is seeking a monetary award of $7 million along with punitive damages, lost wages and legal fees. And most importantly he’s claiming that he came up with the shows hitmaking segments, Hot Topics and Shoe Cam. Now that part is a biggie.
And insert Sherri Shepherd into the discussion. It’s been close to two weeks since she announced having a new show of her own and she just shared with Deadline at the AAFCA Awards in Hollywood this week what her dream list of guests would be. In that list she included Wendy Williams. Now some might see that as a bit of a slap in the face but Sherri’s also said that the two weren’t friends but is grateful that she was trusted to fill in for her in her absence. So it would seem only right to give her the offer. But in reality, who wants to be a guest on a show you’ve been removed from?
Williams is also reported to be having a new show deal in the works. Al Reynolds said on Fox Soul that the “word on the streets” is that she’s got a podcast deal on the way. He also emphasized the credibility of this by saying, “these are the deep deep streets.”
He added, “Now, we know that Spotify gave Joe Rogan $100 million. Everybody know that you heard it first right here on ‘Fox Soul,’ that I think that Wendy Williams is up to something and that’s why she’s not posting or anything. I think this is a lead-up to a bigger announcement that we’re going to see coming down the pipe on her newfound home.” While Shepherd’s mention of wanting Williams on her show was a nice gesture, we’re sure that wouldn’t happen until Williams is back with a show of her own. And anyone that either saw Williams’ documentary or have watched her career knows that she’s not one to just ride off into the sunset so we’re sure she’s working on something and pretty soon we very well may get to see Williams on Shepherd’s couch talking about this new leg of her career. And the great part about her doing a podcast format is that she’ll have more control over her production schedule.
