Inside Wendy Williams' Announcement About Losing Her Mom

Fans of TV host Wendy Williams know that she and her mother have always had a tight bond. That's why it was so sad to watch the host announce on a December 2020 episode of her talk show that her mother Shirley Skinner Williams has died. Williams revealed that her mom died, quote, "beautifully and peacefully and surrounded by love." According to Madame Noire, a journalist named Courtney Brown first broke the news on her Instagram, writing that Shirley and her grandmother were best friends. That post, however, has since been deleted. Williams confirmed the news on her show on December 7th. Fans of The Wendy Williams Show could often find Shirley filling in as co-host with her daughter, or in the front row in the audience with Williams' father if they were visiting her. It's clear that the two were very close. Williams described her relationship with Shirley as "that of two teenage girls" that had gotten closer ever since she left for college. Shirley clearly felt just as strongly for her daughter. In 2010, in one of her many appearances on the Wendy Williams Show, Shirley described her daughter as someone who brought, quote, "hope and wonderful, bubbly personality into our lives." Shirley leaves behind Wendy, her siblings Wanda and Thomas, and her husband Thomas Williams, Jr., according to Madame Noire. Shirley Skinner Williams was a special education teacher at Bradley Elementary School in Asbury Park, according to NJ.com. The outlet reported that she was also well-known and beloved in her community, working as a Girl Scout leader, leading the Central Jersey chapter of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Club, and one time even winning the Now Black Woman Award from The Drifters, a national group of Black women that supports educational opportunities for youth. Shirley also dealt with a lot of personal strife, saying once on her daughter's show in 2010 that her own mother died after battling colon cancer right around the time that Wendy was born in 1964. Wendy added, "Her summer work was to take care of a new baby and drive up and down the Turnpike from Ocean Township to Elizabeth to see her dying mother and take care of me at the same time. So while one life was lost, one life was gained." Wendy's mom was clearly a ray of sunshine herself, who will be greatly missed. #WendyWilliams