Wendy Williams gets emotional thinking about a recent threat from the judge in her guardianship ... crying at the thought of being moved to a more restrictive assisted-living facility than the one she describes as a luxury prison.

The former talk show host joined us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday and we asked her about the judge being pissed at her for grousing to the media about her guardianship and threatening to place even more restrictions on her.

Wendy talked to us for nearly 20 minutes from her room at Mount Sinai West Hospital in NYC, where she's about to be released and sent back to a residential center called Coterie ... a place she hates with a passion.

In our conversation, Wendy expressed concerns about the judge's threat ... as she put it, things are already bad on the 5th-floor memory unit where she lives ... and the idea of something more restrictive is pretty scary.

Wendy's guardian claims things at Coterie are great ... that Wendy can come and go as she pleases and her family can visit her at the drop of the hat -- but Wendy says that's bogus and calls her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, a liar ... telling us what her life is really like inside the facility. The points of view are polar opposites.

WW also has shares her thoughts on the judge, Lisa Sokoloff, showing contempt for Wendy advocating for herself in the media. There's a lot Wendy wants to say, but she is limited to the PG version here.