Did Wendy Williams know her Career fate? How you doing?

Let’s start with some numbers.

36 years in Broadcasting for Wendy Williams, and her TV show is going into its 13th Season. Wendy throws down the gauntlet to me:

“I’m 56, but I know I look 36.” -Wendy Williams

“I’m a grown woman. And with a grown career.” Wendy Williams

“I planned this career. This isn’t happenstance!!! I knew in sixth grade what I wanted to be.” -Wendy Williams

Wendy Williams has got it going on. Wendy may be 56 but she is a good looking woman who looks 36. Lord knows, has the personality and energy to match. Our conversation started quite nicely with the Queen of daytime talk with Wendy saying in her cheerful voice:

“Hi Dom….Hi everyone…” -Wendy Williams

Yet at the same time Wendy quickly drew a line in the sand, establishing the ground rules by telling me that she was a respectable human being:

“ If you say one slick word, I will hang up on you.” -TV Host Wendy Williams to Dominic Carter

Fair enough I thought….Then I dove in. Did Wendy know her career would skyrocket? The queen of gossip said no, and then as only Wendy would do, came her rhetorical question?

“Are you out of your mind?” Did you see my lifetime Movie event?”-Wendy Williams

I did see the movie and the documentary that aired afterwards! Like Wendy, one day I too…. would love to let it all hang out about my own life. But mine would be more like the 2002 Movie Antwone Fisher, which was directed by Denzel Washington. Mr. Fisher had a very rough childhood. So did I. Wendy was the executive producer of the biopic on her life, revealing the highs and lows….and everything in between.

“But I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready!!!”-Wendy Williams on her movie

“And now the time has come. And I had no idea when someone would be ready for me to be able to help me tell my story. But yeah, I’m just a girl from Jersey.” -Wendy Williams on her movie

Then in our conversation, Wendy turned to her love life, telling me she was dating, but with restrictions due to Covid-19.

“You can’t kiss anyone. You can’t hold hands. You can mask and be six feet across from the table.”-Wendy Williams

Forced to deal with “modified” dating, for Wendy, that means plenty of phone contact with the man in her life. His name is Mike Esterman, from Maryland. He won the contest on her show to date Wendy.

“You know we had during February, a date with Wendy and I chose a guy named Mike Esterman. And Mike is fabulous. And we did it….. like the old school dating game. You and I Dom…are both old enough to know the old school. So I chose Mike. And Mike is a great conversationalist and we talk hours. A short conversation is one hour. A regular one is two and we put the phone down we walk away from it, we come back to it and we’re still there holding on…. like that.” -Wendy Williams

After Williams told me bluntly that she looks twenty years younger than she really is, she put me on the hot seat because I didn’t know how to immediately respond. Talking to a woman….in this day and age of sexually harassment allegations, (exactly what the Governor of NY, Andrew Cuomo is accused of, with even his own political party demand he resign) I had a silent pause for a hot second…which seems like a minute. I agree she looks great, but I also balked.

“You do… you do (me telling Wendy she looks good) It’s just you know Wendy in this day and age. I got to be careful what I say Wendy, you know?” -Political Commentator Dominic Carter

“No, I know!!! I know!!! But I’m telling you. I’m a grown woman. And with a grown career, — Wendy Williams

Williams tributes legendary Radio Disc Jockeys that influenced her path in her early years as a child.

“Frankie Crocker and Dan Ingram, and people like that they influenced me. I come home from school. And that was back when being a latchkey kid was really safe. And no one would be there. But I would peel the potatoes and, you know, get things prepped. For my mom, I was this sous-chef. And, you know, I have an older sister, she graduated from Tufts University, and the younger brother, who is a school teacher.” -Wendy Williams

Discussing her Mother is the only time that Wendy Williams nearly broke down emotionally during the interview.

“And my mom and dad, my mom passed away, back home… a few months ago. And it took me a grip in my heart to announce it. But my mom and dad were married for 65 years. And I never heard them fight the way we fight today. The way we fight today is sleep on the couch or get the hell out until tomorrow. But But I grew up in the West side section of Ocean Township. And, you know, my mom passed at the hospital. And, you know, I mean.” -Wendy Williams.

“I know… I know, it’s tough. I know. I know. It’s tough. Wendy. I know what’s tough. I know. It’s tough.” -Dominic Carter’s Response to Wendy discussing her Mom’s Death.

So I also wondered, what is it like doing her TV Show, which is now international, given the Coronavirus?

“Well, the big deal is, is that we don’t have our live audience. You know, the audience there when I come out of the double doors of my talk show heard, I sweat and and get very ebullient. And the lack of audience now, surprisingly, has not made me lackluster in my delivery, in my opinion, because I come from radio like you, but but I’ve been behind the mic for 36 years, you know, and 12 years, you know, we’re in our season 12 of the talk show. But, you know, the audience is not there. My audience is actually my staffers….. after the show is done everyone scatters they go to their offices and cubicles and we get the show ready for tomorrow. So that’s been, you know, different. But for me, it’s been fine. We get tested every day.” -Wendy Williams

That covid testing is non stop, and has made the Wendy staff even closer.

“Medics, you know who come in to test us all, all of us every day! Whether you’re me, whether you’re you know, stocking sodas in the green room, whether you’re a producer, or whether you’re security or whether you’re a secretary, everyone gets tested. We get up the nose, down the throat spit in the vile, take the temperature…. the whole bit. So if that’s been really odd, but it’s made us closer, Dominic. Closer as a family working the show,” -Wendy Williams

Wendy is also pleading with all of us regarding Covid, and staying safe.

“I want to remind people, please mask up. Please let’s bring our city back. But we have to be careful and not go out and be reckless. And, you know, we wear our masks, carry the sanitizers.” -Wendy Williams

Wendy closed this way and I couldn’t agree more:

Take care of each other. Take care of each other.” -Wendy Williams

This interview also aired on my radio show on Talk Radio WABC in NY 770AM