Wendy Williams criticised for bizarre and ‘insensitive’ segment about slain TikTok star Swavy
Talk show host asked audience members to clap if they’d heard of the late rapper, who was shot and killed this week, and compared her online follower count with his
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Your support makes all the difference.Wendy Williams has faced condemnation online for comments made about TikTok star Matima “Swavy Miller”, who died of a gunshot wound on Monday (5 July).
The US talk show host was accused of using Miller’s death in an attempt to make her audience laugh during a “Hot Topics” segment on a recent episode of The Wendy Williams Show.
Displaying a photo of Miller on the screen, Williams asked her audience to “clap” if they knew who he was. The prompt elicited only a small reaction.
Williams then said: “He’s a TikTok star and he’s got more followers than me. 2.5 million.”
One of her crewmembers then mentioned, on camera, that Williams had more Instagram followers.
“Well as my son, Kevin, would say, ‘no one uses Instagram anymore’,” she continued. “TikTok, I don’t use that at all. I don’t know what that is. I don’t want to be involved.”
Turning to look at the photo of Miller, Williams then said: “He’s 19, and he was murdered Monday morning.”
A clip of the episode has been viewed millions of times on social media, with viewers criticising the presenter for her tone.
“She & everyone in the audience are so disrespectful,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Imagine his family seeing this? Absolutely disgusting. I can’t wait till I see that this show is getting canceled. should’ve happened a long time ago.”
“Wait. This was how she chose to lead the segment talking about this young man’s death?” wrote someone else. “We all know Wendy to be messy and with the s***s, but this wasn’t cool at all. I don’t know this man, but may he rest in peace. I’m sorry his friends and family had to see this. Wow,” another wrote.
“Abhorrent the way she lead the segment to casually tell us he was murdered at the end,” wrote another person.
“That’s so disrespectful,” wrote one reply. “I feel awful for the friends and family who have to watch that . Like why did she announce it like that ?? ‘clap if you know him’ and then she looked at him up and down. she’s not nice or kind or considerate at all.”
The Independent has contacted the show’s production company, Debmar-Mercury, for comment.