Wendy Williams Blasted for ‘Hateful’ Segment of TikTok Star’s Death

Wendy Williams is used to dishing out the “Hot Topics,” but this week, the talk show personality found herself as the hot topic following her comments on TikTok star Matima “Swavy” Miller’s death. The 19-year-old social media star, better known as Swavy and Babyface.S, died of a fatal gunshot wound on Monday, with Williams commenting on his passing during what many have dubbed a “hateful” Hot Topics segment on The Wendy Williams Show.

The controversy surrounding the self-proclaimed “queen of media” was sparked on Wednesday. Introducing a segment on the teen social media star’s death, Williams appeared to complain that Swavy had more TikTok followers than she does. Speaking to her in-studio audience, Williams said, “I have no idea who this is. Neither does [producer] Norman. Neither does one person in this building.” She then asked the audience to “clap if you know who Swavy is,” though the room was silent. The daytime talk show host then went on a minute-long discussion about how Swavy had more social media followers than her — all before revealing that he was murdered.

The brief segment soon made its way to social media, where it has been viewed 3.8 million times, sparking anger among many. In fact, the controversy grew so large that by Friday morning, Williams was a trending topic on Twitter, with one person writing that Williams is “so hateful. Like, she basically treated the announcement of his death like it was funny gossip.” That comment, which gained nearly 12,000 likes, went on to read, “Why disparage him? Why even talk about him at all if you and your audience are that removed from even knowing who he is?” Another person tweeted, “The way Wendy Williams introduced that story about that TikTok star’s passing was offensive.”

Williams’ comments even led to calls for The Wendy Williams Show to be canceled. On Twitter, one person wrote, “Wendy Williams show needs to be canceled fr.” That tweet amassed more than 5,000 likes, with several others making similar remarks. Somebody else asked, “When are we going to cancel [Wendy Williams]? Toxic is toxic and she’s leading the pack,” with another person adding, “not a cancel culture type dude but Wendy Williams gotta go.”

At this time, Williams does not appear to have responded to the backlash. Swavy, a Delaware-based teen whose dancing videos secured him more than 2.9 million TikTok followers, was shot and killed Monday in Wilmington, Delaware. Police are still investigating his murder.