Talk show host Montel Williams is facing criticism from fans after defending the accuracy of the late psychic Sylvia Browne. Browne, a frequent guest on The Montel Williams Show during its 17-year run, was often dubbed "the world's worst psychic" following her death in 2013, particularly after videos of her failed predictions gained traction online.
Appearing on Maury Povich's "On Par" podcast, Williams asserted that Browne had an "83 percent" accuracy rate with her predictions, stating, "She just has this ability to read people." He recounted that Browne claimed to have discovered her psychic abilities at age five and that her mother frequently brought people to their home for readings. Williams suggested that police departments and lawyers had sought Browne's opinions. "On my show, with questions from the audience, Sylvia ran about 82 percent, 83 percent correct," he said.
Despite his defense, Williams clarified that he does not personally believe in psychics and suggested Browne was skilled at reading people through observation rather than possessing a spiritual gift. This distinction did not appease fans, many of whom accused Browne of being a "fraud" throughout her career. "Oh, please… She was a con artist," one commenter wrote, while another remarked, "That math ain't mathing." Some fans accused Williams of "gaslighting" viewers by defending Browne.
Browne's career was marked by several widely publicized, inaccurate predictions. In 1999, she told the mother of missing child Opal Jo Jennings that her daughter was alive and had been sold into slavery in Japan. Skeletal remains of Jennings were found five years later buried in Texas; a local man convicted of her murder had killed her the night she disappeared. Browne also incorrectly told the parents of missing Shawn Hornbeck in 2003 that their son had been killed by a Hispanic man with dreadlocks; Hornbeck was found alive in 2007, having been abducted by a Caucasian man. In a 2004 appearance, Browne informed the mother of Amanda Berry that her daughter was deceased. Berry, however, was found alive in 2013 after a decade of captivity. Berry's mother died in 2006, believing Browne's false prediction.
Browne, who died in 2013 at age 77, published over 40 best-selling books on spirituality and hosted lucrative events. She also established the Society of Novus Spiritus, a Gnostic Christian organization. In 2010, Skeptical Inquirer magazine reported on 115 of Browne's predictions in missing persons and murder cases, finding no instances where her predictions were correct when the outcome was discovered.
One prediction that resurfaced and went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic was from a 2008 book in which Browne wrote, "In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments."