In the 1995 movie Waiting to Exhale, a heartbroken, fed up Bernadine Harris (played by Angela Bassett) gets revenge on her deceitful husband and releases her pain by piling his wardrobe into the back of his luxury car before dousing it all in lighter fluid and setting it ablaze. With the flames growing behind her, she lights a cigarette and walks away with her head held high.
It’s been 30 years since that iconic scene, but for The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Porsha Williams, its message of rage and resilience couldn’t be more relevant. As she posed for People’s re-creation of that moment and more memorable images from the film on May 16 in her hometown of Atlanta, she was processing her own feelings of betrayal and loss in real time.
“I didn’t expect today to be emotional,” she says on-set. “But the moment I sat down at that vanity and started brushing my hair, just like Angela in the movie . . . it hit me: I’ve prettied up the ugly in my life too, when it wasn’t so pretty. And I’m done doing that.”
She means it. Just weeks after the shoot, following an intense legal battle, Williams’s divorce from Simon Guobadia was finalized on June 11 by a Georgia judge. Guobadia, 61, appeared on Zoom from his native Nigeria, where he was deported to from the U.S. because of immigration violations, including bank and credit card fraud.
“You go through different stages,” says Williams, 44, who returned to the Bravo show this season after a three-year hiatus. “You have that anger. You have the moment where you have to fight for your life in a court situation. And then, toward the end, you have the clarity where you realize you are still blessed. Your family is by our side, your child is protected; there’s a whole new life that you can start.”
The two met through Guobadia’s ex, who also appeared on RHOA. She and Guobadia went public with their relationship on Instagram in 2021 and announced their engagement just one month after.
They celebrated their union with not one, but two weddings in November 2022: a traditional Nigerian ceremony honoring Simon’s heritage, followed by a lavish American celebration in Atlanta.
“I’m a true hopeless romantic. Once I decide to be with you, I dedicate everything to you,” she says. “And Simon matched my energy. He’s very warm. He loved spending time with me. We were freakin’ extra. If we wanted to fly out of the country every weekend or post on Instagram together about how much we loved each other, he was down.”
He also provided Williams with what she thought was a “safety net” given their 17-year age difference. “I’ve been hurt really bad in different situations. I’ve felt defenseless, I’ve been lied to, I’ve been asked to change who I am and have not felt heard,” she says. “But Simon, he was settled in his life. And the biggest thing he used to stress to me was how he had grown. He was very upfront about the things he did in his past relationships and how he had worked on himself. I felt very protected by him. I felt like I met someone I could trust.”
That sense of security was short-lived. After she uncovered what she calls “complex” issues with his legal status, Williams said she knew the relationship was “headed down a dark road,” and she hired an immigration attorney in January 2024.
“We had a real serious conversation because, being a supportive wife, I wanted to deal with this head-on,” says Williams. “I got it spelled out completely by an attorney who had been in immigration for 30 years. And my conclusion was: ‘I don’t want you to travel.’ I begged for him not to leave the country. That was not honored.”
On Valentine’s Day the two had a confrontation, which Williams now calls “a point of no return.”
“There was some paperwork that needed to be handled, and I wanted to bring in some attorneys to represent me, and that was frowned upon,” she says. “And it wasn’t really what he said, it was a look—a look that just felt dark. I just knew I was not looking at the same person I loved before. I could tell that he was just pretty much checked out of the relationship at that point.”
She filed for divorce eight days later.
Williams insists there was no infidelity on either side. “There were some old habits, some desires he wanted to accomplish outside of family. And I think that he possibly chose those things over me. That part took over in the end. I don’t know that person,” she says.
There were “big factors that really, really hurt in the divorce,” she says. “I loved him so much because I trusted him, and I felt safe with him, and that’s what I lost. I couldn’t trust him.”
Williams had seen the look Guobadia gave her on Valentine’s Day once before—in her first marriage to former NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart, which ended in 2013 when he blindsided her with divorce papers. But this time it was her decision.
“Honestly, I feel like I filed before I was ready to file. I filed out of necessity to protect myself,” she says. “This one, I would think he would feel like it was a blindside for him. He was so used to me always finding a way to compromise what’s best for me. And this time I just didn’t do that.”
(Guobadia tells People they had “no issues” as a couple, and Williams is “citing issues that happened in my past. I have spent the better part of 35 years of my life making up for it,” he adds.)
Williams protected herself financially. “In my past I was really naive and gave up everything to be married. But this time I came in as a businesswoman, a person who had built a substantial financial portfolio,” she says. “I did a prenup. I was responsible. So in a way, that due diligence made it a softer landing to walk away.”
Guobadia continued to travel internationally during the 12 months of their divorce proceedings. And in February 2025 Guobadia insisted on returning to Atlanta for a court date connected to their divorce case. Before he even made it there, he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to court documents obtained by People, Guobadia’s detention stemmed from a history of immigration violations, including visa overstays dating back to the 1980s, a 1987 conviction for bank and credit card fraud as well as a 1992 deportation. Despite these issues, he reentered the U.S. under a different identity and obtained permanent residency, which was later deemed unlawfully granted.
His most recent naturalization application was denied in 2022, and subsequent legal challenges were unsuccessful.
News of Guobadia’s detainment made headlines nationwide, which is how Williams says she learned of it: “I found out like everybody else that he had been taken in for questioning.”
Though their relationship was over by then, Williams admits she was saddened by the news. “I find it to be very unfortunate,” she says. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to Simon. I don’t want him in a horrible situation like that.”
Guobadia spent four months in a detainment center before he returned to Nigeria on June 6.
Both Guobadia and Williams attended their final June 9 court hearing remotely. (Williams is filming season 4 of The Traitors in Scotland). After a long day of deliberations, the judge ruled in Williams’s favor, upholding their prenup, granting her spousal support and allowing her the ability to stay in their home for 36 months—with Guobadia paying the mortgage and bills. He’s also responsible for her legal fees and a lump sum payment as part of their settlement.
“I feel relieved,” Williams tells People on a phone call from the Traitors set. “I think the feeling was mutual for me and him. We were both ready to close this chapter and move forward with real life.”
Guobadia says he plans to appeal the ruling. “This matter is far from over,” he says.
The split hasn’t been easy for Pilar Jhena “PJ” McKinley, Williams’s daughter, whom she shares with ex-fiancé Dennis McKinley. The 6-year-old was extremely close to Guobadia and his children from previous relationships—a blended family Williams had worked hard to build during her break from Housewives.
“Bringing Pilar into this marriage was just beautiful,” she remembers. “We let her relationship with Simon happen naturally, the same way we let my relationship with his kids who lived with us happen naturally. And Pilar, she really thrived in it. She loved Simon. She loved having brothers and sisters.”
Initially she told Pilar that her stepfather was traveling for work, but eventually the truth came out. “I just said, ‘Pilar, Mommy and Papa aren’t together anymore. Like, how we were married—how I was the wife and he was the husband? We don’t have that anymore. We’re now really good friends. But we both still love you. He still loves you.’ ”
Not long after, Williams says Pilar asked her, “So he just left me, and he’s not coming back?” When Pilar asked to call Guobadia, Williams claims she reached out to him for the first time in months. “I know if his kids wanted to contact me, that of course I would want to talk to them. So I thought it would still be in his heart. But he didn’t respond. That was difficult. I cried my eyes out for her.”
Guobadia argues that he interpreted Williams’s text as “not genuine” and “manipulative.”
Determined to shield her daughter from the trauma she’d endured, Williams turned to Pilar’s father for help. “I told him, ‘I really need you and I to be close right now.’ And he stepped up in every way,” she says. “We bonded around Pilar to show her what she still had. And she’s really doing well. I’m so blessed to have her father support me through this transition and put her first.”
Bravo fans got a glimpse of McKinley’s dynamic with Pilar on season 16 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which wraps up with a reunion premiering next month. But much of Williams’s struggles around her split was kept behind closed doors.
“I had just filed before we started filming,” she says. “You’ve got to put on a different face, a different energy, just to do your job. So I compartmentalized it and said, ‘Okay, this is work. I’m going to clock in and get it done.’ ”
Williams says Guobadia also made it difficult for her to be transparent. He sent a cease and desist to the show, filed a defamation lawsuit against her and prevented her from filming in their home.
“I gave updates, but when it came to the real dark side of it, I shied away from it,” she says. “The things that were happening on the show, they really aren’t connected to who I am. I’m not saying it’s not real, but that’s like a small part of my reality. I watch the show, and I am like, ‘I filmed that? I said that? I did that?’ ”
What viewers didn’t see was that “I never left my room,” she says. “I was so depressed, and I couldn’t move. I spent a lot of time crying it out.”
Williams leaned on her mother, Diane, and sister Lauren, for support—and focused on herself.
“When I was married to Simon, I loved taking care of him. I got him breathing right, I got him looking right, I cooked for him,” she says. “And I don’t regret it, that’s who I am. I thrive being a wife and mom and taking care of my family. But when it ended, I had to do something with that love. And I decided I wasn’t going to let it go to waste. I started giving it to me.”
She dove into work, taking on various projects like partnering with Almay as a spokesperson and continuing to invest her time in Go Naked Hair, which she launched after her first divorce. “I had no identity when I started it. I’d lost self-confidence,” she says. “Wigs helped me feel like myself again.” She also concentrated on her line of sheets Pampered by Porsha, which was inspired by her mother. “The sheets reminded me of my childhood—soft and comforting.”
Her newest passion is her YouTube channel Porsha4Real. “There’s no drama—just me, Dennis, my mom, my sister, PJ—being ourselves,” she says. “People watch it and say, ‘There she is. That’s the Porsha we missed on Housewives.’ And I tell them, ‘Yeah, I was depressed!’ ”
As for what’s next in the love department, Williams admits she’s not ready.
“It’s lonely. I can’t connect with other men,” she says through tears. “You’d think I’m already out there dating, right? People try to introduce me, but when it’s not the same, it’s not the same.”
“When you go through a bad enough breakup, you’re like, ‘I don’t like nobody,’ ” she jokes, her tears turning to laughter. “I was sitting there like, ‘Do I like women enough? Can I get with a woman? Who can come in and fill this void?’ I have got to be able to sit with someone and feel a part of what I felt with him.”
She remains hopeful that she’ll find love again and says she would “absolutely” marry again. “I’m so glad that I can say that. There could be so much hate in my heart from how my ex handled the divorce—but no. God has preserved my heart. And I thank him for that.”
For now she’s just grateful to have walked through fire with grace. “I’m really proud of myself. I really feel Porsha coming back. I’m finally able to exhale.”
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