Wendy Williams is receiving backlash followings comments she made during a segment regarding the death of 19-year-old TikTok star Swavy.
On Wednesday, July 7, during an episode of The Wendy Williams Show, Williams began the Hot Topics segment by addressing the teen’s passing with: “I have no idea who this is. Neither does Norman [her producer]. Neither does one person in this building.”
She then asked her live studio audience to “clap if they knew who Swavy was,” which was met with underwhelming applause. “He’s a TikTok star,” Wendy revealed she went on to compare social media stats between herself and the late Swavy, adding, “He’s got more followers than me, 2.5 million.”
After Norman, noted that Swavy had more followers than the host on TikTok instead of Instagram, she answered, “Well, as my son Kevin would say, no one uses Instagram anymore.”
“As far as TikTok, I don’t use that at all,” she went on. “I don’t know what that is. I don’t want to be involved.” She then concluded the segment, adding, “Here he is. He’s 19 and he was murdered Monday morning.”
The clip went viral on July 8, with many users upset over her commentary, calling it rude and distasteful.
One person tweeted, “I have watched soooo many hours of Wendy Williams and for the life of me I can never predict when she does something like this.”
Another user wrote, “Wendy Williams brings up Swavy’s death in the most unexpected and disrespectful way imaginable. Disgusting Wendy.”
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Swavy, whose birth name was Matima Miller, was known for his comedy and dancing. Prior to his passing, close to 3 million TikTok users followed his account, where he accumulated almost 100 million likes on his videos.
A press release issued by Delaware’s Wilmington Police Department on July 6 noted that after responding to a fatal shooting incident on Monday, July 5, the 19-year-old gunshot victim (confirmed by authorities to be Matima) was “transported to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”
The incident remains under investigation, police said. Wendy has yet to address the backlash.
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