Before her time on “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” Porsha Williams wanted to be an artist. She has shown off her abilities on the shoe, even releasing music through a label.
However, Porsha says she crossed paths with R. Kelly when she was in her twenties— and her tale is one that has been told by many young women who came across the star.
“I realized it was my opportunity to help anyone who’s been hurt by him,” she told PEOPLE in an interview. “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.”
Porsha is currently promoting her book, “The Pursuit of Porsha.” She says she first met the disgraced singer in 2007 when she was 25, after meeting one of Kelly’s friends. Porsha says she was flown to Chicago to meet Kelly about possibly working together. But instead of being driven to Kelly’s studio, she was taken to his home.
Porsha was brought to Kelly’s room and left by herself for hours before he finally showed up. Kelly came to his bedroom. He asked her to remove her clothes.
“I’ve already put myself in this position,” she wrote according to the publication. “This is what you’re supposed to do. You have to. There is no turning back.”
Porsha saw Kelly on twice more. In the book, she reportedly details encounters she had with other women in Kelly’s home. After waking up and hearing the star hitting another woman, she decided to leave for good.
Porsha said she did not speak about what happened to her.
“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,” she told PEOPLE. “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.”
“But I was glad when I did, she was glad that I told her and we talked about it,” Williams emphasized. “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.”
“The Pursuit of Porsha: How I Grew Into My Power and Purpose” arrives on Nov. 30.
