Truth, Tea, and Receipts, Oh My! Wendy Williams Talks Her Brand New Biopic on Lifetime

First things first: How you doing?(Y’all know I couldn’t help myself.)

Now that that’s out of the way, on Saturday January 28, the world will witness the true story of radio personality-turned-successful talk show host Wendy Williams in a new original film for Lifetime, Wendy Williams: The Movie. Executive produced by Williams herself, the biopic stars Cierra Payton as the titular media icon and Morocco Omari as Williams’ ex-husband Kevin Hunter. As most would imagine, accurately portraying a real-life person onscreen, no less one that’s been in the public eye quite often, can be a uniquely heavy burden to bear. And as Payton and Williams both acknowledged, it’s something that requires a lot of truth and a lot of trust.

“It was very intimidating [portraying Wendy], Payton explained in a virtual press conference for the Lifetime biopic attended by The Root. “In general as an actor, you do the prep and you get all into the character and you create this world. [But] it’s all a very vulnerable experience.”

And perhaps the most vulnerable of all was Williams herself. Having to see the hardest moments of your life translated for the screen for millions to consume, analyze, and discuss would be overwhelmingly difficult for most folks—but then again, we’re not talking about most folks. We’re talking Wendy “Hot Topics” Williams.

“It wasn’t tough at all actually,” Williams explained. “The life that I’m living right now is my best life and I have no guilt about saying that. I don’t regret meeting Kevin, I don’t regret falling in love, I don’t regret staying with him for all 25 years, 21 of them married. And I like who I am so I have no regrets. If anything, I’m extremely happy that I’m still relevant enough that on Monday morning after our Saturday event that I’m able to come through some pretty kick-behind double doors and say ‘How you doing?’ And still be young and fun and pop-culture relevant.”

She added, “I’m trying to get used to new life, this Lifetime movie, I’m producing that. We have great writers who helped me along with this movie and helped expedite the process. It’s very difficult to put all the years—56 years—into two hours, but I think that we’ve captured the most dramatic stuff that Lifetime viewers want and that Wendy watchers probably want more details on. This is my movie, this is my truth.”

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And speaking of Wendy’s truth, she’s now released another tidbit of tea, this time involving one of the hottest (and still hot, if we’re all gonna be completely honest here) rappers in the hip-hop game: Method Man. In a two-minute snippet posted to DJ Suss One’s Instagram on Thursday, Wendy divulged that she and the Wu-Tang rapper were involved in a tryst following a night out at a Manhattan nightclub back in the day.

I know what you’re all thinking. Method Man? Like, THEE Method Man?? This Method Man???

Yup. That Method Man. And the church said ‘whew chile.’

Wendy Williams: The Movie premieres on Saturday, January 30 at 8 p.m. ET, immediately followed by the documentary Wendy Williams: What a Mess! at 10 p.m. only on Lifetime.