How you doin’? On this week’s Hot Topics, Tiktok creator Ashton Ray reportedly received a cease and desist letter from none other than former talk show host, Wendy Williams. Her Campus reached out to Wiliams’ team for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.
If for some reason you have no idea who Wendy Williams is, here’s the run-down. Williams was a radio DJ and host until 2008 when she started her own talk show, The Wendy Williams Show. The program quickly rose to fame because of her personality and the unfiltered way in which she spoke about celebrities. It was on one of its episodes where Williams accidentally gave Dua Lipa the name “Dula Peep” which stuck since then. You’ve probably also heard her voice in that one TikTok sound that says, “Denial is a river in Eygpt, your husband is gay!” Her show had guests such as Todrick Hall, Tamar Braxton, and Priyanka Chopra, and gained over 12 million listeners over the years.
Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get back to the tea. On Nov. 22, Ray posted a few pictures of himself to TikTok, where he dressed up as Williams. For the caption, Ray wrote, “The queen of gossip is back and better than ever.” Since then, he rose to internet fame posting parodic videos where he impersonated the talk show host based on how she spoke and acted on the show. He brought up current celebrity news such as Bhad Bhabie’s pregnancy and Cardi B’s divorce from Offset, and playfully mispronounced names the same way Williams used to.
Each of these videos gained a lot of engagement with comments saying “So this isn’t Wendy Williams?” and “Omg she’s back!” But amidst all that fun, and all of those views, Ray took to Tiktok on Dec. 15 to share his shock when he opened an email from Wendy Williams where she reportedly severed him a cease and desist letter.
Despite this, Ashton returned to TikTok to share similar content, captioning a post he made on Dec. 21, “CEASE AND DESIST BE DAMNED!!! Happy Wendy’s Wednesday kids!” That same day, he released another parody where he spoke about the incident, as if he were her, stating, “I had my team send him a little message telling him to stop immediately.”
As it stands, this has not been confirmed by Wendy Williams or her team.