Exclusive | Wendy Williams says she celebrated her birthday a step closer to freedom –

Wendy Williams tells Page Six that last year she spent her birthday alone in a facility in Connecticut — and that it was a joy and a relief to spend this one back in the city with friends and loved ones.

But the chat show legend told us that her flurry of glam celebrations shouldn’t allow fans to forget that she’s still far from enjoying the freedom she longs for.

We’ve already reported that Williams celebrated her birthday at Delmonico’s, and she tells us that she also had a birthday lunch at Fresco by Scotto, the famed restaurant owned by her longtime pal and fellow New York TV superstar Rosanna Scotto.

And then on Tuesday night Page Six got to tag along for yet another birthday celebration, this one at Le Marais in Midtown with her niece, Alex Finnie, her niece’s boyfriend, Eric Houston, and some friends including Alvina Alston, Mel Maxi and Tobi Rubinstein.

“For my last birthday, I was in Connecticut with nothing but grass and trees,” she told Page Six. “Nobody came to visit me in Connecticut. That was actually a good thing, because it was so bad I didn’t want people to see me there.”

So she said it was beautiful to spend this year’s celebration among friends at great restaurants.

But she said there’s still a long way to go in her battle to be released from the guardianship that keeps her living at a Hudson Yards retirement community, the Coterie, which she calls “a luxury prison.”

When we asked her what her birthday wish would be for the coming year, she said, “It’s obvious: to get out of my guardianship, and go back to work in the most magnificent way.”

She said that she’s been having “some very confident conversations” with her legal team including power lawyer Joe Tacopino.

Williams was put under a guardianship after suffering several health setbacks, including a fleeting alcohol relapse, which she revealed on the “View.”

She told us that, while she has been enjoying some of the city’s most desirable eateries in the past few days, she eats most of her meals in her bedroom.

“I like privacy,” she joked, “but this is too goddam private!”

She said the she’s friendly with her fellow residents, who are mostly much older than her, but it’s “hi and bye.” She also claimed that she isn’t allowed to have a cell phone and only has access to a landline in her room, which, she says, can’t take incoming calls.