Wendy Williams' Publicist Featured in Shocking Lifetime Doc Defends Herself amid Uproar: 'I Was Lied To' (Exclusive)

Publicist Shawn Zanotti, who began working with Williams in 2022, tells PEOPLE she believes the former talk show host would be "mortified" watching the Lifetime docuseries

Publicist Shawn Zanotti wishes Lifetime never started filming her or Wendy Williams' life.

Speaking out publicly after being featured in the two-part docuseries Where Is Wendy Williams?, which portrays Williams' troubled life following the end of her eponymous talk show, Zanotti, is sharing her opinion on the project with PEOPLE. "It's horrible they would do something like this to her," she says. "And for what gain? For what reason?"

Zanotti began trending on social media over the weekend, after she was portrayed as being complacent about Williams' drinking issues and health decline. The publicist says now that had she known the project was not celebratory of Williams and her career, she never would have taken part in it.

"I would never let Wendy put her name and brand on the line like that ever. She's an icon. It's not the story we signed up for and I feel lied to," Zanotti says. "It's so difficult for me to even watch. Wendy would be mortified."

Zanotti tells PEOPLE she has not spoken with Williams since April 2023 when she was admitted to an undisclosed health facility to receive treatment for cognitive issues. On Feb. 22, two days before the documentary's release, Williams's medical care team said in a statement that she had been diagnosed with progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Related: Wendy Williams' Former Attorney Speaks Out amid Ongoing Woes: 'How Did Her Health Deteriorate So Quickly?'

Two years ago, Zanotti was hired by Williams' former attorney as a publicist after Wells Fargo froze Williams' accounts amid questions about her cognitive decline. After her attorney was off the case, the former TV personality was placed under legal guardianship in May 2022, and Zanotti says she was never paid for her work again.

"Besides one time I was paid by her manager, Will [Selby], for a website I built for Wendy's podcast, I worked for free," she alleges.

According to Zanotti, Williams often called her at all hours to say she was starving during production. There was allegedly no food in her apartment, which left Zanotti, who is LA-based, so worried that she would take turns with the star's closest pal, Regina Shell, ordering her food from across the country. 

"All I did was help because Wendy asked me to, out of my own pocket," Zanotti explains. "I didn't make any money off her at all. The whole time I've known her, I've fed her, helped, advised her, and worked for her endless hours a day for free. So, that's why I was so hurt and offended when I saw what her family was saying in that documentary about me."

Zanotti says she was approached for the project by Creature Films and eOne Television, the producers behind another Lifetime documentary Wendy Williams: What a Mess!, in July 2022 to do a multi-part, premium documentary series following Williams' next chapter in her life. While the original intent of the documentary was to chronicle her comeback by way of a new podcast, it became abundantly clear that the host was not fit to work.

Williams is shown in the throes of alcohol addiction and struggles with health issues including Graves' disease, an immune system disorder that can cause bulging eyes, and lymphedema, a condition that causes swelling in her feet. Aphasia and frontotemporal dementia affects language, communication behavior and cognitive function, though the recent diagnosis was not known at the time of filming.

Related: Where Is Wendy Williams? Producers Say They Continued Filming Star amid Her Struggles 'Out of Concern' (Exclusive)

Zanotti says that at the time of filming, she wasn't aware that Williams still had a severe drinking problem or cognitive issues because she had never even met her in person until they started filming.

"I live in Los Angeles and have only been around Wendy in person a few times. The first time was when we started filming the sizzle reel," she says. "All those negative things about her in the press may have been rumors—I can't take that as a fact. It wasn't my experience with her."

She adds: "Her management team told me she was ready for her comeback and pushing the podcast. They were the ones with her. I was never told she was struggling with alcohol, and I never saw it." 

After being off the air since 2021, Williams was ready and excited to return to the spotlight, says Zanotti. At first, she wanted to do a podcast, but that quickly shifted towards a desire to return to television in some capacity.

"Wendy wanted to do something she could do once in a while when she was in L.A.," Zanotti says, noting that she set up the meeting at NBC that's shown in the docuseries. "It was never going to be her own show or a daily show; it was just something to do once in a blue moon to give her something to look forward to because she was bored. That is what she wanted. She loved being on TV but couldn't quite let it go. So, because I had a relationship, I just made a phone call."

Zanotti says for the cameras, she was playing her role of being a good publicist. "I thought, 'Well, you know what? I didn't say anything negative about her.' I still protected her brand the best I could in those moments," she reflects now.

"At times, I knew in my heart—maybe she needed more time. I wasn't quite sure," she continues. "It's also clear that she probably didn't need a drink after looking at how everything played out. But no, no one ever told me she couldn't drink, and she only had those few sips around me. Her health should always come first. Had I known, I would have advised her not to do the documentary at all."

The second time Zanotti spent any real time with Williams, she was filmed on camera in New York when the former talk show host told her she needs to get liposuction, called her a "dumbass," and became erratic when Zanotti failed to purchase the correct vape pen.

"I know and saw those experiences of how she treated me, but in the moment, I tried to give her a ton of grace," she explains.  "I also thought we were doing her comeback story, so I never thought they would air it. And for me, I had to be as professional as I could because at the end of the day, she was my client, and I was in front of cameras."

Off camera, she says Williams apologized to her. "I didn't like the way she treated me on camera, so we had a conversation about that, and she never treated me like that again," Zanotti maintains.

"The next day, we were great, but instead of the documentary showing any of our beautiful moments together, like her telling me that she loved me, they chose to highlight all the negative stuff," she claims. "I was speaking on the notion of the comeback the whole time ... because that's what they told me the story is about. The headlines we were putting out were that she was thriving, she's healthy and she's trying to get back into podcasting. I believed that all to be true."

Related: Everything to Know About Wendy Williams’ Guardianship

In a recent interview with executive producers Erica Hanson and Mark Ford, Hanson shared that no one was aware of Williams' struggles as the start of production.

"We had no idea that she had dementia when we started filming [in August 2022], or we wouldn't have filmed," she told PEOPLE.  "I think the documentary really illustrates our journey of trying to understand what was happening. It sheds light on that period of time in Wendy's life where she was under care of a guardianship and living a very isolated life in New York, in that apartment."

She continued: "We really did have concerns for her, and we thought about what would happen if we weren't there? We left her when we knew she was in a safer place getting the care that she needed."

The moment Zanotti realized Williams' storyline might be shifting gears and capturing more moments of her downfall was when she flew to Los Angeles with Williams in tow. In the middle of the night, she says Williams frantically called her from New York because she claimed she was being verbally abused by Selby, her manager and jeweler, and that he wasn't feeding her.

(A source close to the documentary production says, "We have no knowledge of that ever happening. It was never brought up to production." Selby didn't respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.)

"Wendy said, 'Come get me. I have nothing to eat,' and she told me she was hungry, mortified and afraid of him, and she needed me to come to get away from him," Zanotti says. "So I left and flew to get her to help her. She was very nervous and anxious about what he might do."

Williams is shown in the documentary telling Zanotti that she is angry with Selby for throwing away her alcohol and for the harsh way he speaks to her at times. For his part Selby shares that he's grown increasingly frustrated with policing Williams amid her alcohol abuse.

Zanotti says that was when she first reached out to Williams' guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, to let her know about the situation with Selby, along with having reservations about the documentary. "I told her something didn't seem right and I had no control anymore. I wasn't sure what they were filming, how Wendy would be portrayed, that it didn't look like it was going the right way. She said she was going to look into it."

Morrissey could not be reached for comment by PEOPLE.

Related: What Is Wendy Williams Doing Now? All About Her Life After Her Talk Show

Hanson and Ford previously told PEOPLE they believe Selby had good intentions.

"I think Will had her best intentions at heart. I don't think anything was done maliciously," Ford said, as Hanson added, "I wasn't concerned. I don't think he would ever jeopardize her health or safety. I didn't have that feeling at all."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

After filming a few scenes over a few months in 2022, Zanotti says she was ex-communicated from the project and has yet to hear from production.

"They never informed me at any point that they were changing the direction of this documentary. Then they stopped talking with me," she alleges. "They ignored me and never sent me the trailer or the documentary."

"I just regret ever being a part of the documentary," says Zanotti, "or getting Wendy involved."

Despite Zanotti's regrets about filming, she says Williams is very special to her. "I know you wouldn't think that from watching what you saw and my experience filmed, but she has such a big heart. I've gotten to know her these past couple of years, and I will take it with me forever," she pauses, softening her tone. "I'll cherish it until the day I die."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.