Spoilers from the first three episodes of The Traitors season 4 ahead.
Fans of The Real Housewives of Atlanta know that Porsha Williams can certainly hold her own in an argument. But on The Traitors, the reality TV star didn't realize just how much of a fight she would have to put up.
On the latest episode of the Marie Claire podcast "Nice Talk", Williams opens up about her time on the competition show, including how she "underestimated" the intensity of filming the roundtable.
If you're up-to-date with The Traitors, you know that Williams was banished by her fellow contestants in episode 2, after comedian Ron Funches presented his "evidence" that she was a Traitor. She wasn't.
"I underestimated how much fight you have to give at the roundtable," Williams tells editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnake.
Funches told the group that Williams had said, “I killed Ian,” referring to the murder of Big Brother winner Ian Terry by the Traitors. To him, her use of “I” was a clear tell that she was a Traitor herself.
"Once I got there and I realized that [Ron] was flies on shit, like he was not gonna let it go, I was like, Oh, okay, so I'm supposed to go toe-to-toe. I just wasn't prepared for that," Williams says of the roundtable.
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She explains now that she was "talking from the mind frame of a Traitor. My whole sentence was, 'Okay, guys, we got to figure this out. Let's say if I'm a traitor, I already killed Ian. Why?'"
Williams laid out her case at the roundtable, but it wasn't enough to save her. Beyond the "I killed Ian" moment, Funches shared that Williams had also said there were four Traitors—something that she couldn't technically confirm unless she was a Traitor herself. Williams says she just assumed as much, as past seasons typically featured three Traitors, and this one introduced a new Secret Traitor as well.
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But the shock of the roundtable wasn’t the only thing weighing on Williams; she was already exhausted by a personal situation outside the show.
"I think the timing was just probably not the best for me," the 44-year-old explains. "I had literally just spent 15 hours a day before in court divorcing, and so I didn't have any more fight. I was like, 'Oh, y'all don't believe me? Okay, got it. Okay. Divorce me, then. Banish me, then. Bye ashies, all of ya'll!' Of course, I wanted to say way more when I stood up there, but I was like, keep it cute."
Had Williams held out longer on the show, she might have helped take down the Secret Traitor, Donna Kelce. Williams said she knew the mother of NFL players Jason and Travis Kelce was a Traitor right away.
"Oh, I knew Donna from day one, from the moment she got her card," Williams says. On this season, host Alan Cumming picked a Traitor in front of the entire cast by revealing a secret card to the chosen contestant.
"I knew it when she turned around," she continues. "At first, I was joking with people. I'd be like, 'What if she's the Traitor?' And then she started kind of just changing. She was really calm, laid back, and then all of a sudden, she'd, like, start talking to you, you know what I mean, and she picked certain people to do it with ... I told everybody, even going into that first roundtable, I was like, 'I think everybody should vote for Donna.'"
For more from Williams—including who she hopes will be sent home from the show next—check out this week’s installment of Nice Talk. The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.
Lia Beck is a writer living in Brooklyn, NY, who covers entertainment, celebrity, and lifestyle. The former celebrity news editor at Bustle, she has also written for Refinery29, Hello Giggles, Cosmopolitan, PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly, and more.