Is Wendy Williams's date rape story true? Inside shocking claims against R&B singer Sherrick and ‘smoking buddy’
Wendy Williams may be a millionaire now but she had a tough beginning and struggled her way to stardom. Painting her hardships in the Lifetime biopic ‘Wendy Williams: The Movie’, the 56-year-old ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ host is all set to spill the beans.
One such shocking point in the film comes when Williams meets a popular celebrity during an interview and he lures her into a lavish suite. The 90-minute movie then shows how Wendy was forced into sex when she thought the cute celebrity was going to be her boyfriend. In the appalling scene, Ciera Payton — who plays Williams — says, “Back then, they called it date rape. It was rape... It was also the last time someone was going to tell me to sshhh.”
The movie makes you wonder if Williams's ‘date rape’ story is actually true. If you can't stop thinking about what really happened, here's an inside look into whether the scene was truly inspired by real life.
Shocking ‘date rape’ story
Days before the movie was on the brink of its release, Williams confessed in the media that the movie will highlight two cases of never-before-shared date rape. During a January 12 panel promoting her upcoming Lifetime biopic, the media personality spoke for the first time about being date-raped by a late soulful R&B singer Sherrick (died 1999).
Recalling how she met Sherrick during an interview, Williams, 56, told People she was “mesmerized” by the singer at the time. “He mesmerized me with his twinkling eyes,” she said. “He flipped the interview around to where he was interviewing me – I was just gaga over this man and he asked me to go to an opening party, an album release party, with him that night.”
She added, “And before the party, I was date raped by him...” Also confessing that she was date-raped while in college when she visited a fellow student in an all-male dormitory, Williams continued, “Those types of things happen to girls all the time. And they've been happening a lot, to a lot of our mothers, grandmothers, great-great-grandmothers and their great-great-grandmothers, too.
Are the allegations true?
Wendy Williams went on to say that she “put [herself] in a bad circumstance on both occasions”. The alleged rape is said to have taken place in 1988 after Williams went back to Sherrick's hotel room for a night of partying that involved drinking and drugs. In the movie, the character goes by the moniker of “Rick Tony” and is played by Nykeem Provo.
Soon after she publically admitted the incident, Sherrick’s widow — Lynne Conner Smith — broke her silence on those sexual assault allegations against her late husband. Sherrick died at the age of 41 in Los Angeles in 1999 from unknown causes. The former lead singer of the Motown group, Kagny, is survived by his wife and three children — Kiriandra, Paris and Chance Smith.
Making it clear that Williams should let Sherrick “rest in peace” as the man she loves “is not here to defend himself,” Smith noted, “Sherrick was a beautiful man, a genius with a voice like an angel... We have three amazing children. This is quite painful to not only us but his nieces and siblings.”
‘Why now?’
In an official statement to Page Six, Smith's family noted: “The man that others knew as ‘Sherrick’ passed away 21 years ago. He was loved and adored by his family and we miss him every day. As I will never minimize or dismiss the horrid actions of sexual assault, I am saddened that Ms. Williams feels the need to publicly make these allegations when the man she is accusing is no longer on this earth to defend himself. Our family does not know Ms. Williams and are not aware of any relationship or encounter they may have had.”
Questioning why she only came out with the story now, Smith added, “Why would Wendy not call the police if it were true? Why did she go out with him? We have questions, too!”
Moreover, she claimed that Williams “waited 25 to 30 years” to speak up when she “tells the truth as a career!” Smith said, “It’s hard to believe... Why now?!” She also confessed that Williams “never reached out to [Sherrick’s] family.” With the controversy already erupting, it's hard to decide which side is telling the truth.