Wendy Williams is currently under fire for comments made during a segment about the death of 19-year-old TikTok star Swavy.
During an episode of The Wendy Williams Show on Wednesday, July 7, the talk show host began the Hot Topics segment about the teen's passing by stating, "I have no idea who this is. Neither does Norman [her producer]. Neither does one person in this building."
She then asked her live studio audience to "clap if they knew who Swavy was," which was met with a little applause. "He's a TikTok star," Wendy explained before comparing social media stats between herself and Swavy, adding, "He's got more followers than me, 2.5 million."
After her producer, Norman, noted that Swavy had more followers than the host on TikTok instead of Instagram, she answered, "Well, as my son Kevin would say, no one uses Instagram anymore."
"As far as TikTok, I don't use that at all," she continued. "I don't know what that is. I don't want to be involved." She then concluded the segment, adding, "Here he is. He's 19 and he was murdered Monday morning."
Although a clip of the segment was shared to Twitter that same day, the moment went viral on July 8, with users expressing their distaste over her commentary throughout the segment. One person tweeted, "I have watched soooo many hours of Wendy Williams and for the life of me I can never predict when she does something like this."
Another user wrote, "Wendy Williams brings up Swavy's death in the most unexpected and disrespectful way imaginable. Disgusting Wendy."
Swavy, whose birth name was Matima Miller, was a popular face on the social media platform, known for his comedy and dancing. Before his passing, close to 3 million TikTok users followed his account, where he accumulated almost 100 million likes on his videos.
A press release issued by Delaware's Wilmington Police Department on July 6 noted that after responding to a fatal shooting incident on Monday, July 5, the 19-year-old gunshot victim (confirmed by authorities to be Matima) was "transported to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries."
The incident remains under investigation, police said.
Wendy has not addressed the backlash publicly. E! News reached out to her team for comment.