ET exclusively spoke with the talk show host via Zoom ahead of the premiere of her new Lifetime movie and documentary.
Wendy Williams is ready to level up in 2021!
ET exclusively spoke with the talk show host via Zoom this month, where she shared her big plans for the new year and the qualities she's looking for in her next boyfriend ("hopefully husband") now that she's single.
Williams, who was married to Kevin Hunter for nearly 22 years, finalized her divorce from the TV producer last January. The highly publicized split is being played out in Lifetime's Wendy Williams: The Movie, as well as a new original documentary from the network, Wendy Williams: What a Mess! The two share one child together, 20-year-old Kevin Hunter Jr.
"I'm 56 now. I'm a mom, I'm not a single woman running around town with [rappers and DJs] like Eric B anymore. Those days are over," Williams told ET's Kevin Frazier. "My next boyfriend, hopefully husband he'll turn into, I don't want him to be in this business."
"He's got to appreciate my humor and have a sense of humor for the business that I'm in, and not try to stop me," she continued. "But he's also got to be very, very comfortable in the man that he is. And he's got to be 45 years or older."
Williams admitted that the last man everyone thought she was dating -- 28-year-old Marc Tomblin -- wasn't really her boyfriend at all, but just a new friend she met through the industry.
"No, I wasn't dating him. He's gay," she said of the fashion designer. "That picture I put on my Instagram, I had no idea how it would blow up."
"I was going through my divorce at that time and I knew that there was no going back," she added. "The media all took it to mean something else, so I just went with it."
Aside from re-entering the dating game and her new life as a single woman, Williams is also looking forward to making new career moves this year. She told ET that she's landed a multi-project deal with Lifetime, and that the biopic and doc are just the beginning of what she's got cooking.
"Now that I am my own boss, as opposed to having Kevin bossing me around and telling me what to do and me playing the role, I am in on everything," she said. "Now I would like to produce more stuff. And that stuff would be for other people to star in, not me -- I'm not an actress. I liked being part of the process of writing, and also I would like to sit in that director's chair one day. Just to be an associate director or something."
Williams, who will still be hosting The Wendy Williams Show amid her new deal with Lifetime, said she also hopes to someday get into the classroom and teach a course in communications.
"I like doing things beside this talk show because this is not gonna last forever," she confessed. "Being on TV in front of the camera is fun, but I'm realistic and I know it's not going to last forever. I would like to go into the classroom. I would like to be a professor."
"I feel as though people are sending their kids to college and for four years you're being taught by a bunch of professors and teachers who haven't even done what your kids are studying to do," she continued. "So I would like to get into that classroom action. I would like to actually start doing that before the talk show is over, and then keep it going forever. Get in that classroom, talk to these kids, be the professor. Because the parents' pockets deserve that."
Wendy Williams: The Movie airs Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime, followed by Wendy Williams: What a Mess! at 10 p.m. ET/PT. In the meantime, tune into Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday (check your local listings here) for more on Williams.
RELATED CONTENT:
