Wendy Williams and Kevin Hunter's Love Story: How ‘serial cheater’ cut short the beautiful 25-year relationship
Wendy Williams is the woman of the moment. All eyes seem to be fixed on the broadcaster and businesswoman as the much-awaited Lifetime movie ‘Wendy Williams: The Movie’ is on the brink of its release. The 56-year-old ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ host known for her on-air spats with celebrities is all set to unravel private moments of her life.
Before you get set to watch the 90-minute feature, let's rewind and look at what really happened in her real life.
Born on July 18, 1964, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Williams is the second of three children raised by parents Shirley and Thomas Williams. She first set foot into the broadcast industry when she was still studying. First a DJ for the college radio station, WRBB, she then started working with WVIS in the United States Virgin Islands. In 1998, she was reportedly fired from Hot 97 and was then hired by a Philadelphia urban station, WUSL. Amid the tumultuous course of her career, how did she meet her husband Kevin Hunter? Here's all you need to know.
How did Wendy Williams and Kevin Hunter meet?
Not many people know that Wendy was married to her first husband Bert Girigorie for five months in 1994. The two separated soon after and were officially divorced a year and a half later. In the late 1990s, Wendy first locked eyes with Kevin Hunter and he soon became her manager, quietly taking phone calls.
An old New York Magazine feature dubbed him as a “big, forceful man with a shaved head and a bunch of tattoos”. It continued, “Tom and Shirley had hoped for a college-educated fellow, a Carlton Banks type in khakis. Kevin had owned a hair salon, promoted parties. He wears to-the-knee basketball shorts; sometimes he addresses Wendy as Yo.” The two, however, were similar in their hunger to make it.
The couple had a baby in 2000 and named their son Kevin Hunter, Jr. She first found he had been unfaithful to her while she was pregnant. The same report details Kevin's extramarital affairs, putting it blatantly: “Kevin cheated on her while she was bloated and bedridden with their baby. Wendy has dealt with it. In part she understood, in part, she wanted to kill him.”
When and why did she finally divorce him?
Kevin's serial affairs haunted Wendy throughout their 25-year relationship and it came to a point where she hired a private investigator on him. During a recent interview on SiriusXM's ‘The Jess Cagle Show’, the talk show host said her ex was a “serial” cheater and claimed she knew about his affairs “almost since the beginning.”
She added, “We were married for almost 22 years. We were together for 25 years... I don't regret the day of meeting him. I don't regret putting up with him for all 25 years.”
In January 2020, Wendy, 56, officially divorced him and the big blow came after he fathered a child with his mistress. The baby was the last straw but Wendy later clarified the reason for their split, saying, “And that has nothing to do with him having this baby or him having this side girl for almost 15 years of our marriage. I've known about her almost since the beginning. I've known that Kevin is a serial cheat.”
Why did Kevin Hunter cheat on Wendy Williams?
Since the beginning, Kevin has been a cheater. Name-dropping his baby mama on her show, she said, “Welcome to Hot Topics, Sharina Hudson! Getting out of my car... with my money,” and added how he had another baby with massage therapist Sharnia: “She’ll be almost three — I think she’ll be three next month, don’t you know.” Calling Kevin by his real name, she added, “Good morning, Kelvin. Kelvin is Kevin's legal name. It’s my truth.”
Shedding light on his notoriety, Wendy said, “The more successful I got and he got, and we believed in each other, the more of a jerk he became — he used his good credit to purchase property that he chose to wine and dine his extramarital affairs. This girl wasn't the only one. She just happens to be the one who kept his baby.”
Talking about the time when news broke about his baby, she added, “Kevin had a major indiscretion that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. An indiscretion that I will not deal with. I never thought that I would be in this position. I'm a very forgiving person, but there's one thing that I could never be a part of, and that one thing happened.” Wendy is happy she can now singlehandedly focus on her career and future goals.