Porsha Williams marked her return to The Actual Housewives of Atlanta with some tears.
Within the March 9 season 16 premiere of the Bravo hit — which noticed Williams return to the franchise after a two-season absence alongside a rebooted solid — the Go Bare Hair founder acquired emotional as she opened up about her ongoing divorce from estranged husband Simon Guobadia.
“Life would not at all times have a fairytale ending,” Williams, 43, mentioned to viewers on the high of the present, as she famous she had filed for divorce from Guobadia a few months earlier than RHOA cameras picked up.
Sustaining stability of their marital dwelling with daughter Pilar Jhena McKinley, her youngster (who turns 6 this month) with ex Dennis McKinley, has been the precedence. “Issues are getting actually anxious with the divorce, and I am making an attempt to determine the way in which ahead,” Williams mentioned.
Williams and Guobadia, 60, started courting in April 2021 after assembly by way of her former Bravo costar, Guobadia’s ex Falynn Pina. The pair introduced their engagement only one month later and mentioned “I do” in November 2022 with two back-to-back weddings: one in Nigeria and the opposite in Atlanta.
Their cut up, which ipromiseyoumedia introduced completely in February 2024, took RHOA followers abruptly. However as Williams famous within the season 16 premiere, issues between the previous couple have been removed from good.
“While you’re married, I am old-school — you do not exit and inform individuals what is going on on in your home,” she mentioned. “I do know it seems to be wish to many individuals, ‘Oh, she posted this good life.’ However I look again and I can suppose to myself, ‘I positively posted this understanding we’re not okay.’ ”
Explaining what went unsuitable, Williams mentioned she and Guobadia had “critical belief points” between them. “He simply wasn’t the person I believed I used to be marrying,” she defined, as editors performed video footage of Williams from a future second this season asking, “Who the f— did I marry?”
Later, in a dialogue with divorce attorneys Randy Kessler and Asha Howard, Williams shared extra about how the romance fell aside.
“In my relationship with Simon, I felt like if I had him by my aspect, we may conquer something,” she mentioned. “Nonetheless, I simply began realizing a variety of various things that turned out to be untruths.”
Lots of these untruths, Williams alleged, concerned cash. “He would not inform me what our funds have been,” she mentioned. “It is not like I used to be sitting right here like some dumb little spouse and simply having fun with some cash. No, I really requested my husband, ‘What’s going on?’ ”
Williams additionally raised issues about Guobadia’s immigration standing in america. In February, the Nigerian native was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid President Trump’s mass deportation plan.
Based on courtroom data obtained by Atlanta’s WSB-TV 2, Guobadia — who migrated to the U.S. in 1982 — has lengthy been making an attempt to change into a U.S. citizen, to no success.
He was declared deportable in 1985 after overstaying his visa, the outlet reported. He repeated the issue the subsequent 12 months, when he returned to the U.S. on one other work visa.
Guobadia was then deported again to Nigeria in 1992 following three arrests, together with one in 1987 for alleged financial institution and bank card fraud, WSB-TV 2 reported. Nonetheless, after lower than a month away, he returned to America underneath an undisclosed identification and was granted everlasting residency standing.
In 2016, the businessman utilized for naturalization — although, as a result of his earlier standing was “unlawfully granted,” he was denied. He has made a number of complaints and appeals since then, together with his most up-to-date try denied in January.
All through their time collectively, Williams mentioned within the RHOA season 16 premiere, she had questions on Guobadia’s immigration points.
She recalled asking him, “Why, once we go to the airport, do now we have to face in a secondary line? Why can we repeatedly must undergo these points?”
“Simply so occurs, all of this data that I had requested him about and he had lied about, got here out; about him not having an actual inexperienced card and him making an attempt to get citizenship,” she mentioned, pointing to experiences about Guobadia that have been circulating within the press throughout their marriage. “For me in my relationship, I used to satisfaction myself on us having nice communication. When communication began to lack, it felt intentional.”
Submitting for divorce, Williams mentioned, was a alternative she made in an effort to “defend property” like their marital dwelling, during which they’ve 50/50 pursuits.
“My again was so in opposition to the wall. The one approach so that you can actually defend your self on the finish of the day when you have a prenup is to implement it. And also you solely implement it by doing a divorce,” she mentioned. “I am not going to let a foreclosures discover come to my home and I am unable to pay it. So I needed to ensure if it occurs, I’ve the cash to do what we wanted to do.”
Since then, issues have been contentious between the pair. Guobadia even took authorized motion making an attempt to stop Williams from filming RHOA of their dwelling (a choose finally dominated in opposition to Guobadia, although viewers doubtless will not see contained in the property till the season’s finish).
All the preventing has prevented Williams from totally processing their divorce, she mentioned. “I have not handled the emotional half but. I’ve needed to cope with logistics,” she defined. “It is actually bizarre. It feels actually chilly.”
That is when the tears began flowing, as Williams mirrored on the standing of her relationship with Guobadia on the time of filming.
“I reached out to him about two weeks in the past, making an attempt to only see the place we may discover some peace on this and now he would not wish to talk in any respect,” she mentioned, crying. “However I’ve simply given up on that half, so now I’ve to change into the individual he is saying. Now, I’ve to be chilly, I’ve to only transfer ahead within the courtroom course of.”
“I nonetheless love this individual and I actually, actually hate all of this,” she additionally mentioned within the episode. “Now I simply wish to be let go and I simply wish to transfer on.”
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The susceptible second triggered Williams to mirror on the great occasions of their marriage. “One in every of my joys was getting up within the morning and simply enthusiastic about what I may do to make him blissful,” she recalled. “And I genuinely felt he was the identical approach about me.”
“I might have rode to the tip of the world with this man. However the individual I am now mourning, he was not actual,” she mentioned of Guobadia.
“He is a nightmare,” Williams concluded.
The Actual Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
