For more than a decade, reality TV star Porsha Williams has given fans a window into her life, from fertility struggles to the aftermath of her divorce. Now, she's opening up about a health issue she has kept private.

Williams revealed to "CBS Mornings" co-anchor Gayle King that she had to undergo an emergency partial hysterectomy this year after doctors discovered 21 uterine fibroids — one the size of a cantaloupe.

"It all happened so fast. It really didn't hit me until I woke up in the hospital bed," Williams, who appeared in season four of "Traitors" and is currently on "Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip," said in an exclusive "CBS Mornings" interview.

Williams has been dealing with fibroids since her late 20s. She'd previously undergone a procedure called uterine fibroid embolization to shrink the fibroids without impacting the uterus and believed they were gone. 

"I had symptoms but, you know, I'm 45 years old, and I'm thinking, oh, maybe perimenopause," Williams recalled, mentioning a long menstrual cycle, migraines and fatigue. 

The fibroids were first discovered when she began trying to have children and experienced some fertility issues.

"I had never really heard of them or thought of them. And then I went to the doctor and I was pregnant, and that made her, again, do more checkups. She said, there's a fibroid there," Williams explained.

The doctor said there was a possibility the fibroid would degenerate during the pregnancy, but Williams said by four months the fibroid had outgrown the baby, leading to a miscarriage. She later welcomed a healthy rainbow baby, her daughter Pilar, in 2019.

"I'm thinking I'm done [with kids]. I'm thinking I'm done. I had a divorce. I had my child and I have a great support system," Williams said. 

But one day, while accompanying a friend to a fertility appointment to learn more about freezing her eggs, Williams decided to ask the doctor for an exam. She hopped on the table and underwent a quick exam. 

"She started looking into, you know, doing the exam, and she went silent. And I looked at the screen, and all I could see was, like, black, and then I started seeing some circular lines. And I'm like, 'Not again. Not again.' They had come back," Williams said.

She was referred to a fertility specialist who was "in shock" by the number of fibroids during the vaginal exam and sent her straight for an MRI. Two weeks later, in May 2026, she underwent surgery.

Today, Williams said she is sharing her story in hopes of encouraging other women to advocate for themselves.

"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. 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," she said.

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• Health
• Women's Health
• Reality TV