This is a story that has, unfortunately, been repeated: a seemingly incapacitated celebrity being taken advantage of for the personal gain of others. Here are two cases, the first of Britney Spears who behaved erratically following her divorce and was placed under a guardianship in 2008. The second one is about Wendy Williams whose guardianship began in 2022 when Wells Fargo claimed that she was in a state of “unsound mind”. So, what kind of assistance were their guardians supposed to give them?
Guardianships, or conservatorships, are put in place in a court when someone is deemed unfit to make their own decisions, either personal or financial. This often occurs in cases of dementia or old age when it is decided that individuals cannot process information and use it to act responsibly. At times, though, there is a more sinister intent behind the guardian in charge.
For example, Spears’s father, Jamie, had control over most aspects of her life. She was forced to take many drugs, perform, and was even prevented from remarrying and having children. After the guardianship ended, Spears’s lawyer accused Jamie of “reaping millions of dollars from his daughter’s estate”. “I don’t think that’s right, she should have been able to make her own choices.” said Luke Baumbach. “That’s terrible of him, especially as a father figure.”
Wendy Williams actually spoke out against Spears’s conservatorship on her talk show, joining the Free Britney movement. So, Williams is someone who sees behind the smiling faces of conservators claiming to be helping someone in a state of mental distress. “Ironic is not the word I would use because irony makes it sound funny, but it’s not funny. It’s a twisted fate because she spoke out against the Spears situation and she ended up in the same situation herself,” said Emily Betwinek, formal Head Editor of The Eagles Cry. But why was Williams given a guardian too?
Well, Williams was diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia which basically cause changes in personality and struggles with communication. Despite fights against this claim, she was kept at a “luxury” living facility. It couldn’t have been too great, however, because she dropped a note out of a window calling for help. Emily Betwinek said, “No it’s not luxurious because higher end facilities should be more able to protect the people who are living there, and if something like this is going on under their own roof they are either aware of it and ignoring it or they are turning a blind eye which is dishonorable.” Police transported her to a hospital where she was reevaluated.
Clearly, Williams wanted to speak of her concerns regarding her unnecessary imprisonment. So, she called a talk show, The View, and explained that these diagnoses were false and that she has lost millions of dollars due to Wells Fargo preventing her from accessing her accounts. “If she’s not really sick, she shouldn’t have a guardian,” said Luke Baumbach. Williams’s investment totaled around seven million dollars initially, but Williams claimed that she was only worth two dollars by the time she called The View.
Emily Betwinek said, “I would not trust them with my money and I definitely think that it’s untrustworthy that they would bar someone from accessing their money especially now that we know they had the potential to be suspicious of why her money was being withheld from her. They could’ve helped Wendy out.”
Did you catch that? Williams and Spears both lost millions of dollars due to their conservatorships, but why do courts let this happen? It seems that there are guardians who want to make their clients seem as incapacitated as possible since they will benefit from these terrible circumstances. They describe them as psychologically unwell and suddenly they lose the ability to do anything on their own terms.
We reporters hope that there are better guardians out there who truly care for their clients, because if not, the same exact crime can happen again and again. Perhaps you think that you’re safe, but you won’t be so certain when someone shows up at your door to move you and sell your house.
