Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Media maven Wendy Williams covers the latest issue of UPTOWN and opens up to editor-in- chief, Isoul Harris about her wild early years in radio. While she admits there were times when she was just ‘sloppy and greasy,’ she says it shaped her into the woman she is today.
“I regret nothing in my radio career, nothing,” says Williams. “I had to be that person back then to be the person I am today. The person who was on the radio then was authentically me. We all have our sloppy, greasy side. My original Wendy listeners, here in New York, they grew up with me. They come up to me all the time and say, ‘Oh, I have been listening to you since I was 12.’ I feel proud. I am glad that I have been able to evolve.”
Williams also goes on to dish about growing up ‘Denise Huxtable’ in New Jersey, how she met her husband and productive cheerleader Big Kev and how despite all of her fame and notoriety, she is still not immune to racism as a Black woman.
“We need to discuss race not necessarily because I am being followed in the mall because someone knows that I am Wendy Williams, but because I am a black woman in the mall at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.”
Check out her photos as well as excerpts from the interview below:
“Yes! Who I am right now is exactly who I was on radio. The difference is, now I am 49 years old. There are certain things that I had beaten to death. I had to move on. These other little girls in radio can now imitate me. I am not going to sit in that purple chair and act like I am MediaTakeOut.com! I invented MediaTakeOut.com. I was doing that long before it existed. But, I was not raised like that.”
“It’s a mistake to say that my show is solely a woman’s show, a gay man’s show or a black show,” Williams insists. “This show just happens to be hosted by a heterosexual, black woman who is married and almost 50 years old. In my mind, I am a fun but responsible woman.”
“Our dentist, Dr. Parker, was black. My piano teacher, Mrs. Scott and her husband, black. A lot of my parents’ friends were engineers, doctors and lawyers,” she remembers. It sounds very much like a Cosby Show existence, I say. “Yes! And I was Lisa Bonet. But, you see how that turned out.”
“My parents have seen me go from a loser to a winner. Most people don’t have the luxury of their parents seeing them come full circle. I feel sexy and I feel very accomplished. I have my family. I am grateful.”
“I am looking at the wind-down years, not the windup years. I will not have a chance to make this back. I am not going to screw it up.”
Click here to read the full interview!
Photo Credits: UptownMagazine.com