Porsha Williams is opening up about her own experience with singer and convicted sex trafficker R. Kelly.
While discussing her life and her upcoming memoir The Pursuit of Porsha, with People Magazine, the reality star revealed that she was pressured into a number of encounters with the R&B heavyweight in her mid-20’s, while seeking his help in pursuit of a music career of her own.
Williams says that after meeting a friend Kelly’s in 2007, she was flown to Chicago for a meeting to further discuss her musical aspirations the potential to work together on a project. Though she expected to be driven to a recording studio when she arrived in town she was instead taken directly to Kelly’s home.
Williams, then 25, was briefly introduced to Kelly before being escorted to his bedroom by an associate, where she waited alone for three hours. Once Kelly finally arrived, he instantly told her to remove her clothing.
“I’ve already put myself in this position,” she wrote of the incident in her memoir. “This is what you’re supposed to do. You have to. There is no turning back.”
Williams says she had encounters with Kelly on two more occasions, and personally saw several other young women who also were staying at his home at the time. However, the morning she awoke to hear another woman being beaten in a nearby room was the last she ever spent in his house.
She kept the relationship a secret from family and friends for years.
“I think for any woman or man who’s been in an abusive situation, you don’t want to tell your parents because you don’t want them to think that they had let you down in any way,” Williams said. “I don’t want [my mother] to think that she had done anything wrong. And so I took it upon myself.”
But once she finally shared her experience with her mother, Williams was inspired to make the situation known publicly to help others.
“But I was glad when I did, she was glad that I told her and we talked about it,” Williams said. “She told me some of her experiences. And we just talked about how this should be told so other women don’t have to go through it.”
She was so inspired that she decided to share her story with investigators while Kelly was on trial for charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
“I realized it was my opportunity to help anyone who’s been hurt by him,” she told People. “There had been so many other instances where I had been abused by men that my mentality [at that time] was of an abused person and that it was okay for me to be treated like that.”
“It’s not something you want to tell your mom, because my mom is a very strong woman and she did her very best in raising me,” says Williams. “And I think for any woman or man who’s been in an abusive situation, you don’t want to tell your parents because you don’t want them to think that they had let you down in any way. I don’t want her to think that she had done anything wrong. And so I took it upon myself.”
Williams’ memoir, The Pursuit of Porsha: How I Grew Into My Power and Purpose, hits bookshelves on Nov. 30.