Porsha Williams is speaking out about the emergency hysterectomy that she says saved her life.
The “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star, 45, detailed the May surgery in a Glamour essay published Friday, revealing that doctors discovered 21 uterine fibroids during the procedure. Williams had initially sought medical help during a fertility appointment about possibly freezing her eggs, where her doctor found over 15 large fibroids plus endometriosis and what she described as “another diagnosis involving the uterine lining.”
Williams wrote that she was “stunned” by the findings and asked whether she could avoid having her uterus removed. Her doctor insisted on a partial hysterectomy that would allow her to keep her ovaries. During the operation, the surgical team found even more fibroids than anticipated, including one “the size of a cantaloupe.”
“I woke up after the surgery and thought, ‘A part of me is gone,'” she wrote in the essay. “Fibroids aren’t something we usually talk about as women, and neither are hysterectomies. There’s a stigma to it, as if you’re somehow less of a woman without your uterus.”
The Bravo star, who shares 7-year-old daughter Pilar with ex Dennis McKinley, wrote that she immediately began mourning her fertility after waking from anesthesia.
“I was 45 and headed toward perimenopause, and I didn’t want anything throwing my hormones off,” Williams shared. “On top of it all was the pain of knowing I’d never carry another child, and that I couldn’t even have eggs retrieved for a surrogate. That door had officially closed.”
Despite that loss, Williams emphasized that she “didn’t have a choice about the hysterectomy” and that the surgery has dramatically improved her daily life. She explained that she hadn’t realized the fibroids were behind her chronic migraines, low iron levels, and the physical stress her body had been under. The growths had also severely impacted her sexual health, having grown large enough to close off more than 60 percent of her birth canal and put her bladder at risk from their weight.
During a CBS Mornings interview Friday with Gayle King, the “Traitors” alum said she went public with her experience to push other women toward proactive healthcare.
“We have to stop diagnosing ourselves. There are so many different things when it comes to a woman that you need to get checked, and we need to learn to advocate for ourselves,” she told King.
“If I saw somebody like me sitting here with you talking about fibroids, it would have clicked to ask for it. I had to ask my doctor to check for fibroids after something was wrong.”
Williams wrote in her essay that she now feels “more present and grateful” for Pilar, whom she called “a true miracle.” The reality star has long referred to her daughter as her “lifesaver,” a term that carries deeper meaning since the surgery.
“I’ve always called her my lifesaver, since she gave me my purpose, and now that feels even more true. I really was chosen to be her mom,” she wrote.
Williams has faced significant personal upheaval in recent years beyond her health crisis. She split from McKinley, Pilar’s father, in 2020. She then married Simon Guobadia in 2022, though that marriage ended in divorce three years later. She has been dating Patrice “Sway” McKinney since last year.
Before welcoming Pilar in 2019, Williams suffered a miscarriage six years earlier, a loss she had previously made public.
Williams’ decision to share her story arrives as conversations about reproductive health and fibroids have gained broader public attention, with several celebrities in recent years opening up about similar diagnoses and treatments.