Painful truths. Dennis McKinley opened up about cheating on fiancée Porsha Williams, revealing on The Real Housewives Atlanta that her postpartum depression drove him to infidelity.
McKinley, 43, and Williams, 38 — who split earlier this year but have since reconciled and resumed their engagement — aired their feelings about his infidelity during a therapy session televised on the Sunday, December 16, episode of the Bravo show.
“We had a rough pregnancy, all the way from start to finish,” McKinley said during the session, referring to the months before the couple welcomed Pilar “PJ” Jhena, now 8 months. “Sex during pregnancy, it’s nothing that a man wants to do. … And after PJ got here, postpartum was very real. We cried together, like, every night. That’s not a good enough ‘why,’ but that’s the ‘why.’”
He continued: “It was a poor decision and it was a selfish decision. I made a mistake, I cheated. … I’ve done my best to let Porsha know that I love her and I’m remorseful and apologetic. The priority for me is the baby.”
Williams, however, disputed his assertion that his cheating was a mistake. “A mistake, to me, is taking the wrong exit,” she said. “You don’t make a mistake and set up with someone and cheat. That’s not where he needs to be in order for me to heal and move forward. He needs to be in a place in my eyes where he’s taking full accountability for his actions, period. No matter how it looks and feels. It insults me when he says ‘mistake.’”
She went on: “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 going to be together for her, we’re going to have to start working on it. … If you’re going to live how you want to live because that’s just what your loins want, we can move on with our coparent life. But if you are really trying to make a commitment over here, that’s what I want to know from your heart.”
McKinley then recommitted to the reality star, saying, “I want us to be together, and that is not a coparent situation. I apologize again. I hope [Porsha and I] can get to a place where we start to communicate more and she can give me another chance.”
Williams seemed pleased with the entrepreneur’s vow. “I am pissed but through all the hurt and the pain, I realize I do want my family,” she told him. “It’s a work in progress. I can’t just, like, start trusting you overnight. It’s not going to work like that … [but] I’m going to try to do it.”
In a confessional, the Dish Nation host said she didn’t know how long it would take her to forgive McKinley. “If we get back together, it has to be real,” she explained. “Because what I’m not going to do is have my daughter be in a house with fake love. Whether it takes six months, whether it takes a year, I’m going to take my time.”
Williams and McKinley debuted their relationship in June 2018, got engaged in September 2018, and welcomed their daughter this March. Us Weekly confirmed the news of their breakup in June, and Williams claimed in a November episode of RHOA that the businessman had cheated on her while she was pregnant.
In an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen earlier this month, Williams — who was previously married to Kordell Stewart from 2011 to 2013 — revealed she and McKinley were “re-engaged” and planning to get married in 2020.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs on Bravo Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
