Exclusive Interview: Wendy Williams Opens Up About Addiction And Her Road To Success

She’s known as one of the feistiest personalities on TV, but behind the knowing grin, Wendy Williams is a survivor who is just as blunt about her own mistakes as she is about those of her celebrity guests on The Wendy Williams Show.

The daytime host tells In Touch in an exclusive interview about overcoming a 10-year addiction to cocaine in her 20s and how love helped save her life. “I was in deep,” says Wendy. “I wish I hadn’t put my life in jeopardy, but I have no regrets because it’s made me who I am today, and I’m proud of me.”

Wendy says starting her career as a radio DJ, life became one big party. “I was a functioning addict. I’d work from 3 in the afternoon until 7 at night, get off and party until 7 in the morning — then sleep until 2, go to the radio station and do it all over again,” she shares. “People around me knew, but nobody ever said anything to me. Nobody had the guts, which is shocking to me.”

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But the turning point for the daytime diva was when she met the love her life, now husband of 15 years Kevin Hunter, who she lives with in New Jersey along with their son, Kevin Jr., 12. “I never had [a breaking point]. Right around my 30th birthday, I met my [future] husband,” Wendy explains to In Touch. “The habit was not breaking me, so I could’ve gone on and on, except I was falling in love with this guy.” Wendy says she slowly learned to wean herself off the drugs and finally quit.

Now, daytime royalty, Wendy credits much of her past for the success she has today. “Every time I walk through the double doors of my studio, I feel like I won,” she says. “Even if it’s all over tomorrow, I won.”