The Wendy Williams Show host has faced massive backlash after poking fun at people with cleft palates and cleft lips on her show on January 7th. Wendy Williams is trying her best to apologize and make amends after mocking people with this condition and has donated to organizations that help those who are born with this condition.
The talk show host has made donations in honour of Canadian football-player Adam BigHill’s four-month-old son Beau Bighill, who was born with a cleft palate and cleft lip.
On watching the said episode, Adam Bighill tweeted, “This is @WendyWilliams making fun of the cleft community on her TV show. Are you kidding me??? We all have a responsibility to #EndBullying. With her platform, like myself, we have a much higher responsibility when it comes to our actions. This is just terrible.”
After five days, Williams tweeted a reply that read, “@Bighill44 We’re thinking about Beau today as he is in surgery. I want to apologize to the cleft community and in Beau’s honor, our show is donating to @operationsmile and @AmerCleftPalate and encourage our Wendy Watchers to learn more and help support the cleft community.”
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers player then tweeted, “Thank you @WendyWilliams for your apology, your donation, and for thinking of Beau today for his surgery. I forgive you, and I encourage others to as well. I wish you all the best.”
It all started during the segment of the show called “Hot Topic”, which was Joaquin Phoenix that day, Wendy said, “I find him oddly attractive…And he knows how to transform.”
The conversation then took a drastic turn when the talk show host blurted, “When he shaves off his moustache he’s got a hairline fracture, he’s got one of those — what do you call it? Cleft lip, cleft palate,” She even tugged at her upper lip mocking the condition, which horrified the viewers who found it very insensitive. She further added, “Now, I find it to be very attractive.”
Joaquin Phoenix cleft-lip scar is surprisingly a non-surgical one. A cleft lip is a slit or opening above the lip and a cleft palate is a slit in the roof of a mouth. According to CDC, it is a condition that often gives children problems with feeding and speaking clearly and can have ear infections, and the possibility of hearing problems and problems with their teeth. This explains why Wendy’s mockery didn’t go down well with the viewers.