Porsha Williams is looking back on a number of frightening experiences she had with R&B singer R. Kelly.
Months after the musician was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering, the former Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member is sharing why she felt it was necessary that she share her personal story with investigators.
“I realized it was my opportunity to help anyone who’s been hurt by him,” Porsha told PEOPLE in their latest issue. “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.”
According to Porsha, who is currently engaged to Simon Guobadia, the former husband of her ex-castmate Falynn Guobadia, she met a friend of R. Kelly’s in 2007 when she was 25 years old. Because she was contemplating a music career at the time, she ultimately made her way to Chicago for a meeting with the singer.
However, while she expected to discuss a possible collaboration with him at a recording studio, she was taken to his home, and later, to his bedroom.
After Porsha spent hours alone in R. Kelly’s bedroom, the musician arrived and instructed her to remove her clothing.
“I’ve already put myself in this position,” she recalled in her new memoir, The Pursuit of Porsha: How I Grew Into My Power and Purpose. “This is what you’re supposed to do. You have to. There is no turning back.”
Following their initial encounter, Porsha and R. Kelly saw one another twice, and during their interaction, she witnessed several other women staying in his home. She also heard a scary encounter between one of those women and an unnamed person that caused her never to return.
After waking up to the sound of the woman being beaten in a nearby room, Porsha, who was just 25 at the time, decided to keep R. Kelly’s secret for years.
“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,” Porsha said. “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,” she continued. “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.”
R. Kelly’s attorney refused to comment on Porsha’s claims.
The Pursuit of Porsha: How I Grew Into My Power and Purpose will hit bookshelves on November 30.
