Culture & Entertainment
TV personality, Eboni K. Williams host is about to take on a new title: mother.
On June 5, the 40-year-old attorney and The Real Housewives of New York City alum exclusively revealed to PEOPLEthat undergoing IVF treatment, she is now pregnant with her first child, a baby girl.
"Anybody who's gone through IVF or attempted IVF will tell you so many things have to go right for the final result of this journey to be a baby," Williams told the publication. "That's why I've called this 'my remarkable miracle,' because it really does feel like I've been the recipient of some very enormous favor from God above."
Williams underwent an egg retrieval at 34 years old, without specific plans for the future use of the eggs. However, six years later, from that single retrieval, she had a successful embryo transfer; likening the experience to “fate.”
"I did one egg retrieval at 34 years old, not really having a clear intention on if I would use those eggs or when I would use the eggs,” she recalls. “And six years later, that one egg retrieval led to one genetically normal embryo which led to one successful embryo transfer and — one pregnancy later — I'll soon have, God willing, one beautifully healthy baby girl. So it really does feel like fate."
The TV host told the magazine that motherhood wasn’t always a “dream or fantasy” for her.
"I want to say that with conviction and clarity; I was not the little girl that grew up fantasizing about having kids and what I would name them and all of that," she says. "That was not my dream or fantasy. I had no real expectation around it."
For Williams, it was an existential reflection on “legacy, love,” and life during the pandemic, that led her to explore her options on growing a family. "I was really thinking I would never use them, whether I got married again or didn't," she says.
"It was the pandemic and having some real existential conversations within my own self about legacy and life and love and the different ways in which I really wanted to explore family."
The first-ever Black Housewife of RHONY added that after liberating herself from societal standards around family she broke free from the notion that she had to follow the conventional timeline and expectations set by others.
"I really freed myself of the rigidness of what legacy, love, and family could look like," she shares.
"Those are the three pillars I reassessed, and it helped shake me from this idea of, 'I have to have it this way on this timeline everyone else is following.'"
Williams' decorated resume allowed her to redefine her version of the “American dream.” After realizing she was capable of providing a stable, safe, and secure environment for her future child, she now sees motherhood as a unique way to cement her legacy beyond mentorship and release the “shoulds” out of her life.
"There will always be that voice that says, 'Maybe I should have waited to meet a man and remarry before I had a baby. Maybe I should not be trying to do this alone.' But f--- that!" she says. "I'm not waiting. I'm 40 years old. I'm not waiting to build assets. I'm not waiting to build my career. I'm not waiting to travel. And I'm certainly not waiting to start a family."
She continues, "I just refuse to wait one more day, that's where I'm at. Everything I want to do, I'm doing right now. And I'm excited. I feel as ready as I'm ever going to be."
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Featured image by Unique Nicole/Getty Images
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