The 55-year-old TV host spoke about the Oscar-nominated actor in a recent episode of her talk show, 'The Wendy Williams Show', mocking the 'Joker' star's 'hare lip, cleft lip, palate.'
- January 17, 2020
AceShowbiz - Wendy Williams might have apologized after mocking Joaquin Phoenix's cleft palates in Tuesday, January 14 episode of her talk show "The Wendy Williams Show". However, that doesn't stop people from blasting the TV host as petition of her firing was launched.
A change petition to "Get Wendy Williams Fired" was launched by Corey Perry. Writing in the description, Corey wrote, "So this ignorant piece of work decided to mock Joaquin Phoenix and his 'hare lip, cleft lip, palate' on daytime television and even went as far as pulling her upper lip with her finger, she is a total disgrace."
"I am completely disgusted that she thinks it's ok to ridicule and make a joke out of something that is completely out of our control," added the statement. "What I am saying is that she is a disgusting human being and in my opinion, if Don Cherry got fired for saying 'you people' than she should be banned from daytime TV." The petition has been garnered almost 40K signatures.
The 55-year-old star spoke about the Oscar-nominated actor in a recent episode of her "The Wendy Williams Show", telling the audience, "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," while mocking the condition by hooking her finger to her lip.
That angered people and the backlash was almost immediate. Canadian professional football player Adam Bighill, who was born with a cleft lip and palate and whose son Beau was also born with the condition, demanded a public apology from Wendy on Twitter.
Responding to that, Wendy addresed the sportsman and his family in her apology. "We're thinking about Beau today as he is in surgery. I want to apologise to the cleft community and in Beau's honour, our show is donating to @operationsmile and @AmerCleftPalate and encourage our Wendy Watchers to learn more and help support the cleft community," she tweeted on January 15.
The apology had been accepted with Bighill wrote back, "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."
