Kevin Hunter: The Rise and Fall of Wendy Williams’s Ex-Husband and Manager

Kevin Hunter is a former television producer and talent manager who is best known for his 22-year marriage to talk show host Wendy Williams, during which he served as her manager and executive producer of “The Wendy Williams Show” while simultaneously conducting a decade-long affair with Sharina Hudson that produced a child and ultimately destroyed his marriage, career, and public reputation. Born in 1972, Hunter met Williams in the early 1990s when she was a radio personality climbing the ranks in New York’s competitive broadcasting market, and he positioned himself as her business partner and romantic partner, eventually marrying her in 1997 and becoming deeply enmeshed in both her personal life and professional empire as her career transitioned from radio to television stardom. His dual role as husband and manager gave him extraordinary control over Williams’s life and finances, which he allegedly exploited through the affair with Hudson that he funded partly with Williams’s earnings, leading to their explosive divorce in 2019-2020 when the birth of his child with Hudson finally forced the situation into public view and cost him both his marriage and his lucrative position producing one of daytime television’s most successful shows.

Kevin Hunter went from being a powerful figure in daytime television with influence over a multi-million dollar show to a disgraced ex-husband who lost his wife, his job, his income, and much of his relationship with his son due to his infidelity and alleged financial exploitation of Williams. The scandal surrounding his affair and the subsequent revelations about his controlling behavior during the marriage painted a picture of a man who used his position as both husband and business manager to manipulate Williams while betraying her trust in the most fundamental ways. Since the divorce was finalized in January 2020, Hunter has maintained a low public profile, reportedly continuing his relationship with Hudson while dealing with the financial and reputational consequences of his actions, as Williams’s subsequent health decline and placement under guardianship has raised questions about whether Hunter’s exploitation contributed to her current tragic circumstances where she suffers from dementia and has lost control of her own life and finances.

Early Life and Meeting Wendy Williams

Kevin Hunter was born in 1972, making him eight years younger than Wendy Williams. Specific details about his childhood, family background, and education remain largely private, as Hunter was not a public figure before his relationship with Williams brought him into the spotlight.

Hunter met Wendy Williams in the early to mid-1990s when she was working as a radio DJ in New York City, building her reputation as a controversial shock jock willing to discuss celebrity gossip and personal topics that other hosts avoided. At the time, Williams was divorced from her first husband Bert Girigorie, with whom she had been married for less than a year in 1994-1995.

The exact circumstances of how Hunter and Williams met are not extensively documented, but their relationship developed during a crucial period in Williams’s career. She was becoming increasingly successful and controversial in New York radio, which meant she was also making enemies in the industry due to her confrontational style and willingness to reveal celebrity secrets.

Early Relationship Timeline

Hunter positioned himself as both romantic partner and career manager, a combination that would give him enormous power over Williams’s life for the next two decades.

The Manager-Husband Dynamic

The dual role Kevin Hunter occupied—being both Wendy Williams’s husband and her manager—created a power dynamic that blurred personal and professional boundaries in potentially problematic ways. In this arrangement, Hunter had control over Williams’s business decisions, contracts, finances, and career direction while also being her intimate partner and the father of her child.

This structure meant that Williams couldn’t easily separate business disagreements from marital conflicts. If she questioned Hunter’s business decisions, it became a marital argument. If she wanted to change management, she’d have to divorce her husband. This intertwining of relationships gave Hunter tremendous leverage and made Williams’s dependency on him both emotional and financial.

Hunter’s role in Williams’s career included negotiating contracts, making business decisions, and eventually serving as executive producer when she transitioned to television. While he may have contributed genuinely to her success in some ways, the arrangement also created opportunities for exploitation and control that would become evident after their separation.

The Television Era and Peak Success

When Wendy Williams’s television show launched in 2008 with national syndication beginning in 2009, Kevin Hunter was positioned as executive producer. This role came with significant income, power, and influence in daytime television. The show was successful, running for 13 seasons and making Williams a household name beyond her radio audience.

As executive producer, Hunter had control over many aspects of the show’s production, staffing, and business operations. He was reportedly involved in hiring and firing decisions, show content, and the business deals surrounding the program. This position provided him with substantial income in addition to what he earned managing Williams’s other business ventures.

Career Peak Period

During these years, Hunter was living what appeared to be a successful life—married to a famous television host, executive producing a hit show, and earning substantial income. However, beneath this successful exterior, he was conducting the affair with Sharina Hudson that would eventually destroy everything he had built.

The Decade-Long Affair

The affair between Kevin Hunter and Sharina Hudson reportedly began around 2009 and continued for approximately ten years before being exposed in 2019. During this entire period, Hunter was married to Williams, working as her manager and executive producer, and maintaining what appeared publicly to be a committed relationship.

The logistics of maintaining this deception for a decade are staggering. Hunter allegedly kept a separate residence for Hudson, funded her lifestyle, and managed to keep the relationship secret despite his wife being a public figure whose show discussed celebrity gossip and relationships. Reports suggest that Williams’s money—earned through her show and other ventures—was used to support Hunter’s affair, including potentially purchasing a home for Hudson and supporting her financially.

The fact that the affair lasted ten years raises questions about how Hunter managed the deception and whether people in their circle knew but didn’t tell Williams, either out of fear of Hunter’s power or reluctance to get involved in their personal business.

The Exposure and Fallout

The affair was finally exposed in March 2019 when Sharina Hudson gave birth to Hunter’s daughter. The existence of a child made the situation undeniable, even for Williams who had apparently been in some form of denial or acceptance of the affair for years before the baby’s birth forced the issue to a crisis.

In April 2019, just weeks after the baby was born, Wendy Williams filed for divorce and also fired Hunter from his position as executive producer of her show. This simultaneous personal and professional separation was necessary given how intertwined their lives had become.

Timeline of Collapse

The divorce settlement details remain largely confidential, but it presumably involved division of assets accumulated during their 22-year marriage, including proceeds from Williams’s show and other business ventures. Hunter also lost his substantial income from the executive producer position, representing a dramatic financial decline.

Control and Alleged Exploitation

After the separation, stories emerged from people close to Williams suggesting that Hunter had been controlling and potentially abusive during the marriage. Reports indicated that he made many of Williams’s decisions for her, isolated her from friends and family members he viewed as threats to his control, and exploited his position as both husband and manager to maintain power over her life.

The financial aspects of his management have also been questioned. Did Hunter use his position to enrich himself inappropriately? Did he make business decisions that benefited him more than Williams? Were funds misused to support his affair? These questions remain partly unanswered, but the fact that Williams immediately removed him from all business roles upon discovering the affair suggests serious trust violations beyond just the personal betrayal.

Impact on Kevin Hunter Jr.

The affair and divorce had significant impact on Hunter’s son with Williams, Kevin Hunter Jr., who was 19 years old when the affair was exposed. The teenager had to process his father’s betrayal of his mother, the existence of a half-sibling born from the affair, and the very public nature of his family’s dissolution.

Reports suggested that the relationship between Hunter and his son suffered significantly after the affair was revealed. For a young man watching his mother’s health decline partly due to the stress of his father’s betrayal while his father continued the relationship with the woman he’d had an affair with, maintaining a close relationship with Hunter would be enormously difficult.

Life After the Divorce

Since the divorce was finalized in 2020, Kevin Hunter has maintained a relatively low public profile. He reportedly continues his relationship with Sharina Hudson and is involved in raising their daughter. However, his career opportunities have been severely limited by the scandal and loss of his position with Williams’s show.

The entertainment industry is relationship-based, and Hunter’s reputation for betraying and potentially exploiting his wife while serving as her manager has likely made him radioactive to potential clients and business partners. Who would trust him to manage their career or business when he so spectacularly betrayed the person whose career made him successful?

Post-Divorce Reality

Hunter’s fall from power and success has been dramatic. He went from controlling a major daytime television show and managing a multi-million dollar career to losing everything due to his choices.

Questions About Williams’s Decline

One of the most troubling aspects of the Hunter-Williams story is the question of whether Hunter’s exploitation and betrayal contributed to Williams’s subsequent health decline. After the divorce, Williams’s health problems accelerated—she struggled with substance abuse requiring treatment, showed signs of cognitive decline that were later attributed to dementia, and eventually lost her show and was placed under court-ordered guardianship.

While these health issues have multiple causes, the stress and trauma of discovering a decade-long affair, losing her business partner, and going through a public divorce certainly contributed. Some observers have suggested that Hunter’s control during the marriage prevented Williams from getting help she needed for substance abuse and other issues, and that his betrayal triggered a downward spiral from which she hasn’t recovered.

Current Status and Future Prospects

As of 2024, Kevin Hunter remains largely out of the public eye. He reportedly continues his relationship with Sharina Hudson, though they have not married publicly. He is raising his daughter with Hudson while dealing with the consequences of his choices—damaged reputation, limited career prospects, and strained family relationships.

His prospects for career rehabilitation seem limited. The entertainment industry has long memory for betrayals and exploitation, and Hunter’s actions toward Williams were particularly egregious given the power he held over her life and career. It’s difficult to imagine clients or business partners trusting him given this history.

Conclusion

Kevin Hunter built a life of power and success as Wendy Williams’s husband, manager, and executive producer of her television show, but destroyed everything through a decade-long affair with Sharina Hudson that he allegedly funded with Williams’s money while exploiting his dual role to maintain control over her personal and professional life. The exposure of the affair in 2019 when Hudson gave birth to his child led to immediate divorce, his firing from the show, and the loss of the income, influence, and reputation he had accumulated during his 22-year marriage to Williams. Since the divorce was finalized in 2020, Hunter has faced the consequences of his betrayal with dramatically reduced circumstances, limited career prospects due to his damaged reputation, and a strained relationship with his son who witnessed the devastation his father’s choices inflicted on his mother. As Williams now suffers from dementia and lives under guardianship with her autonomy stripped away, questions persist about whether Kevin Hunter exploited and damaged a vulnerable woman during their marriage, with his betrayal and control contributing to the tragic decline that has left one of daytime television’s most powerful personalities unable to control her own life in a cautionary tale about the dangers of mixing business with marriage and the lasting harm that exploitation and betrayal can inflict.