Porsha Williams has never been one to settle, whether it’s in business, relationships, or, apparently, the bathroom.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star is taking her famously high standards to a whole new level through a partnership with Charmin, helping introduce the brand’s new Ultra Strong with Wider Sheets toilet paper.
“I don’t skimp on anything. I set them. I don’t chase them,” Williams told me during an exclusive interview at Charmin’s New York City event on October 20.
But for Williams, refusing to settle is about more than choosing the right toilet paper. It’s a philosophy that has shaped her career, her personal growth, and the many reinventions she’s experienced since joining the Housewives franchise.
Asked what advice she would give her younger self before joining The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Williams offered an answer that was equal parts humorous and heartfelt.
“I would tell young Porsha today that you are the shit. You’re gonna be the shit for a very long time,” she said, before joking that her future would even include a partnership with Charmin.
But beneath the humor was a more serious message about personal growth.
“When I was younger, I thought when I had messes and screw ups, that I would never be able to clean them up,” Williams explained.
Her perspective has since changed.
“At the end of the day, in life, you can clean anything up. You can rearrange your life. You can reinvent yourself. You can become who you want to be.”
“I have lived several lives, and all of them have been fabulous,” she added.
That philosophy also plays into her latest partnership with Charmin, which tapped Williams to help introduce its new Ultra Strong with Wider Sheets toilet paper.
The partnership brought the Bravo star to New York City for an immersive experience where visitors could interact with the brand’s signature bears and try its updated product, which Charmin says offers greater coverage and helps consumers use up to 50 percent less toilet paper compared with a leading one-ply bargain brand.
For Williams, the campaign’s message about raising standards extends beyond the bathroom.
The entrepreneur, whose ventures have included Go Naked Hair and Pampered by Porsha, emphasized that authenticity has been central to her business decisions.
“As a businesswoman, be truthful, have integrity, and build brands and partner with brands that are true to you,” she advised.
And after years of delivering memorable moments on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Williams has developed a clear philosophy about what separates an unforgettable Housewife from the rest.
“I think just being your own person,” she told me when asked what makes someone truly iconic within the franchise.
She also offered some pointed advice for newcomers hoping to make their mark.
“The new housewives who come in and try to mimic older housewives who’ve been there, you’ll never win,” Williams said.
Instead, she encouraged them to embrace their individuality.
“Come in, be yourself, be fabulous,” she continued. “Stand on whatever you say and mean it, and be quick-witted.”
Williams also shared some behind-the-scenes stories from The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, revealing that the women experienced more mishaps than viewers might realize.
“I don’t think you got to see how many times we fell,” Williams told me.
According to the reality television personality, getting the Housewives into their transportation was a comedy routine of its own.
“They should have done a whole rendition of trying to get Housewives into a minivan,” she joked.
And apparently, the accidents weren’t limited to one destination.
“They showed one when we were in Jersey in the snow, but we also fell in Miami. We fell in Atlanta,” Williams recalled.
She even had a theory about what might have contributed to the chaos.
“Maybe it was those juices, those go-go juices I was making for the girls, but we was falling down a lot,” she said.
For anyone expecting a tame reunion, Williams made it clear that wasn’t the atmosphere she was trying to create.
“I don’t know why people were thinking it was going to be a dry trip. No, I had go-go juice in everybody’s cups.”
Despite those occasionally chaotic moments, Williams has learned to embrace every version of herself.
And while she’s already experienced plenty of reinventions, she’s still thinking of new ways to bring fun to the Housewives franchise.
If given complete creative control over an episode, she said she’d love to have the women dress up as elderly versions of themselves before heading out for dinner and a night of partying.
The idea, she explained, would be to embrace the kind of unfiltered fun that has made the franchise memorable.
After all, Williams knows better than most that sometimes the most entertaining Housewives moments happen when nobody is trying too hard to create one.
