Personal life
Williams has been married to Michael J. Williams, a federal marshal in Texas, for more than 20 years, and both flew helicopters early in their careers. They reside in suburban Houston, Texas. She had a pet Jack Russell terrier named Gorby who was featured with her on the Dog Whisperer television show on the National Geographic Channel on November 12, 2010. In 2012, Williams expressed a desire to adopt a girl from Ahmedabad.
Williams practices Hinduism. In December 2006, she took a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to the International Space Station; in July 2012, she took an Om symbol and a copy of the Upanishads. In September 2007, Williams visited the Sabarmati Ashram and her ancestral village of Jhulasan. She was awarded the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award by the World Gujarati Society, the first person of Indian descent who was not an Indian citizen to be presented the award. On October 4, 2007, Williams spoke at the American Embassy School, and then met Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India.
Williams has also visited Slovenia several times. In 2009, the club Slovenian Astronaut (Slovenski astronavt) arranged a memorial room for her in Leše, Tržič, northwestern Slovenia. Leše was the birthplace of her great-grandmother Marija Bohinjec, born in 1891, who immigrated to the United States as an 11-year-old in 1900 or 1901. In May 2013, the former President of Slovenia Borut Pahor awarded Williams a medal of merit for her contribution to the popularization of science and technology among the Slovenian youth. During her stay in October 2014 she paid a visit to the Astronomical Society Vega in Ljubljana. She visited Slovenia again in 2016 and 2026.
In June 2017, the Needham Public Schools committee voted to name the town's new elementary school after Williams. In May 2020, Williams addressed more than 500,000 Indian and other international students in the United States in a virtual interview organized by the Student Hub at the Embassy of India, Washington, D.C., during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.
