Sunday’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” took us behind the scenes of a truly tough-to-watch therapy session between Porsha Williams and Dennis McKinley. The episode marked the first time Dennis publicly addressed cheating on her during her pregnancy.
Porsha was first to arrive and was in the middle of talking to Dr. Sherry when Dennis walked in. “We were just talking about, what is it gonna take to get beyond where you are? ‘Cause I remember at one point, you said you were done done, and Dennis — I’m gonna start with you,” Dr. Sherry said. “Why do you think you came today? And help me understand where you are.”
“I think we’ve been through a lot these last few months, you know, and everything was good. But I made a mistake. I cheated,” Dennis began, but Porsha interrupted, “It’s not a mistake. A mistake, to me, is like take the wrong exit. You don’t make a mistake and set up with someone and cheat. That’s not where he needs to be, and in order for me to heal, in order for me to move forward, he has to be in a place, in my eyes, of taking full accountability for his actions. Period. No matter how it looks and it feels. It insults me when he says mistake.”
“You know, we had a rough pregnancy all the way from start to finish,” Dennis said in response. “Sex during pregnancy is nothing like what a man wants to do.” Visibly annoyed, Porsha replied, “But I mean, we had sex throughout the pregnancy. You do realize that I saw the inappropriate text after I had PJ?”
“Yeah, and after PJ got here, postpartum was very real. You know, we cried together like every night,” Dennis said. “And that’t not a good enough why, but that’s the why.” Dr. Sherry simply looked at Porsha and said, “Porsha?”
“All the rough stuff that he said that I went through, he was literally by my side,” Porsha said, tearing up. “And that’s one of the things that’s been like really difficult.”
“Dennis,” Dr. Sherry asked, “do you understand what Porsha’s struggling with? Given that you were there and you all were in it together, how could you have sex with anyone else?”
“It was, uh, you know, a poor decision,” he mumbled. “And it’s a selfish decision. I’ve done my best to let Porsha know that I love her and I’m remorseful, I’m apologetic. And priority for me is her and our baby.”
Crying, Porsha explained to Dr. Sherry, “I’m terribly disappointed, and I’m hurt.” Dr. Sherry stopped her and urged her to say it to Dennis. She half-turned her face and said, “Dennis, it’s just been really hard. All these choices that I’ve had to make, I’ve been having to be strong because we have a daughter. She needs to know that, listen, at the end of the day, Dad is here, he wants to be here, he’s gonna be faithful, he’s gonna great to her mom, he’s gonna be great to her.”
“Can you tell him why it was devastating on an emotional level?” Dr. Sherry asked. “Because you still love him.”
“I haven’t wanted to tell him that because I felt like he didn’t deserve to hear that,” Porsha confessed. “So I haven’t been wanting to tell him that because I felt like I was giving you something, but I have to let that go about giving you something. I have to let that go about, ‘Oh, he’s gonna know I forgave him, so now he won’t be sorry anymore.’ F–k that! At the end of the day, this is a serious situation. Our daughter is growing up by leaps and bounds every single day. If we’re gonna be together for her, we need to start working on it.”
“I’m hearing a lot of hurt and a lot of pain,” Dr. Sherry said. “But also I’m hearing the question, how do I know I can even start trusting you again? And that’s something [Dennis] has to answer.” Dennis said he and Porsha were “technically still engaged,” but Dr. Sherry pointed out that, “technically,” Porsha didn’t have a ring on.
“Right, I don’t,” she confirmed. “I want you to understand something. If you still wanna live how you wanna live because that’s just what your loins want, we can move on with our co-parent life. But if you’re really trying to make a commitment over here, that’s what I wanna know from your heart.” Dennis maintained, “I want us to be together. It’s not a co-parent situation. I apologize again. I hope we can get to a place where we communicate more, and she can give me another chance.”
“I am pissed, but through all the hurt and the pain, I’ve realized I do want my family,” Porsha said. “But it’s a work in progress. I can’t just start trusting you overnight. It’s not gonna work like that.”
Dr. Sherry explained that “trust has to be rebuilt” but made sure to let the couple know that their situation was “serious, but it’s not hopeless, as long as both of you are willing to be honest.”
Porsha later told the camera, “Honestly, I do not know how long it’s going to take me to forgive Dennis because if we get back together, it has to be real because what I’m not gonna do is have my daughter be in a house with fake love. Whether it takes six months, whether it takes a year, I’m gonna take my time.”
After the session, the two got into the same car. Dennis told Porsha he appreciated that she went to therapy with him and assured her he heard and processed everything she said. For her part, Porsha thanked Dennis for his honesty.
“You look amazing today,” he said. “Can I come over?” She declined the offer.
In less intense news…
During a conversation about Kenya Moore crashing Marlo Hampton’s wig launch with a full-blown marching band, Cynthia let Moore know that Marlo said after she left, “I got some stuff on Kenya anyway. I know she’s over there paying child support.” Kenya laughed and replied, “That bitch is used to pulling a lot of things out her ass, including some 80-year-old dick.”
They both agreed Marlo must’ve known about this “snake” that allegedly secretly recorded Cynthia talking smack about NeNe Leakes. If you recall, Yovanna said she was not the culprit when Kandi Burruss asked her last week.
Later in the conversation, Cynthia asked Kenya how things were with her husband, Marc Daly. “It’s been tough,” Kenya confessed. “I’m not gonna lie. Marriage is tough. Like Michelle Obama was just talking about it, and she was basically talking about how you have to have a great person on your team.”
“Yes!” Cynthia exclaimed. “And she also said, ‘You have to learn to argue with your partner, too.'” Kenya replied, “We’re not good at that. With Marc, you have to decode what he’s really upset about because it just masks itself as just anger.”
She later went to see an attorney/estate planner about making sure she could protect her assets — like her hair care line and her $1.8 million home — and ensure everything would go to her daughter. In Georgia, if something were to happen to Kenya, Marc and Brooklyn would split her assets 50/50. And if you recall, Kenya and Marc didn’t sign a prenup.
Poor Kenya teared up during the meeting and told the attorney she was unsure of who she wanted to appoint as her trustee. “If you appoint the wrong person then they can just take everything,” she said. “That makes me very nervous.” During a later confessional, an off-camera producer asked Kenya why Marc wasn’t given power of attorney. “I think he would have a hard time if it goes against what he really thinks should happen,” she replied. “You’ve gone so many years to try to find this person who is perfect for you and you want it to last forever, but it doesn’t always go the way you expect it to. And the one thing that I want to do is protect my assets for my daughter.”
Given that Marc has other children, Kenya figured he’d be taking care of them. She wanted to do the same for Brooklyn.
Later, Marlo met up with Porsha and tried to reason with her about coming to a truce with NeNe. “Honestly, with NeNe, I’m upset and it’s mixed with some hurt,” Porsha explained. “Because the line that she crossed, calling me fat while I was pregnant…”
“What does Michelle Obama say? They they low, you go what?” Marlo said, as Porsha interrupted, “My name Porsha f–king Williams, and that’s NeNe edgeless Leakes. And that bitch came for me while I was sitting at home, breastfeeding my child, for no apparent reason.” She later told the camera, “NeNe does not know how to be a friend at all because if she knew how to do that, she would know when to pick her battles and choose her times.”
At NeNe’s house, Gregg Leakes was in the kitchen making some cocktails. The doorbell rang. “Lemme tell you something. Every time I hear that sound, somebody be at the door!” he hilariously said to NeNe as she went to go let in her life coach, Tamra.
NeNe expressed to Tamra that she wanted her sisterhood back, but that if she was going to apologize, she needed to know what she was apologizing for. She also revealed Tanya Sam had extended the invite to her to join the ladies in Toronto for Carnival. NeNe was hesitant, so Tamra suggested she touch base with some of the women prior to making her decision.
Elsewhere, Cynthia and boyfriend Mike Hill met up with Eva Marcille and husband Mike Sterling. The alleged recording came up, and Mike Hill was instantly triggered. “Whoever recorded you is a piece of shit, and I don’t mind saying that,” he said angrily. “I’m very protective when it comes to this lady. And you’re doing it, and you’re going back to start some shit, and that pisses me off.”
“I believe Marlo could be a suspect because Marlo is NeNe’s lap dog,” Eva later told the camera. “And I’m convinced that NeNe’s a narc! She’s a federale; she works for the federal government. She recorded me, she has recordings of other people. I don’t know what her infatuation with recordings are, but she needs a pat down!”
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
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