'The Real Housewives of Atlanta' alum Phaedra Parks reflects on returning to the Bravo-verse with 'Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club.'
It's been five years since Phaedra Parks handed in her peach on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and despite fan pleas to make a return, Phaedra says she has no interest in picking up that piece of fruit ever again.
"No, I don't want to pick up a peach," she declares to ET. "If I wanted a peach, I would have a peach pie, but that's not... no, as I've made it very clear, that's not what I want to do. No. I will be yachting. Let them continue to sail away on the Titanic, OK?"
Phaedra left RHOA under strange circumstances, after Porsha Williams claimed at the season 9 reunion that Phaedra informed her of their co-star, Kandi Burruss', desire to allegedly drug and seduce Porsha, allegations Kandi has vehemently denied. Phaedra has never really publicly addressed the ordeal in the years since she became "the daggone villain" (her words). Viewers expected Phaedra to finally share her side of the story on The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club, but when teed up by Vicki Gunvalson to reflect on her RHOA departure, Phaedra said she wasn't "doing that."
"Well, actually we had spoke about it earlier and so they chose not to air it," Phaedra reveals. "However, that was -- and just to be very honest -- that was, what now five and a half, six years ago? And there's two sides to that story. You only heard one and obviously they chose not to play the other side. And so it is what it is, but I'm living in the present. And I think people realize... the people that know, know, and most of the people knew and they still know."
Phaedra hints her side may never come out, citing possible legal issues that could pop up from her story. She does note, though, that if what she did was really so bad, why would Bravo give her a second chance on air?
"I'll say like this: it is what it is," she muses. "I mean, people are going to like you and they're going to believe whatever side they want to believe. And I think my record speaks for itself and not one day is going to obviously be my legacy. And that was some BS as I said then, and it's still some BS and obviously I'm back in the Bravo family, so that speaks volumes, shall we say."
"If obviously there was this whole issue with me and they didn't want to be bothered with me, you wouldn't see me popping up at every event," she adds. "Because I didn't invite myself, baby."
One event Phaedra may have been invited to and opted not to attend is Sherée Whitfield's She by Sherée fashion show, set to debut later in RHOA's currently airing season. When cameras filmed the event earlier this year, rumors swirled online that Phaedra popped up as a surprise guest.
"Honey, I was a ghost," she cracks. "It was me in the spiritual form, because I wouldn't dare."
While RHOA watchers might suspect Phaedra wants to stay out of the same spaces as Kandi given their dramatic history, she clarifies that they've been "in the same room several times" since her RHOA departure.
"This is Atlanta," Phaedra notes. "We've been in the room."
As for whether they've spoken in those rooms, Phaedra will only say she's made "eye contact" with her former friend. For now, the attorney/mortician/actress is focused on the friends she made while filming The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club: Vicki, Dorinda Medley, Eva Marcille, Jill Zarin, Taylor Armstrong, Brandi Glanville and Tamra Judge.
"This was a very good group," she reflects. "I had such a good time. I mean, I totally enjoyed myself. I had a ball. It was the best time for me. And I'm so happy that I did it because I was sort of apprehensive about doing anything with Housewives. So this was such a great reintroduction to the franchise. So it was a very, very good experience. Thank God!"
Phaedra calls Dorinda, who hosted the trip, her "soul sister." The seven-episode season's proved a little rough for The Real Housewives of New York City alum, as she seemingly got into fights with nearly every woman on the cast... except for Phaedra!
"I really love her," Phaedra professes. "[The other women] don't have as good of taste as me. They don't know quality!"
One of Phaedra's most memorable RHUGT moments, though, came at Dorinda's expense, as she told Brandi that Dorinda was old enough to be the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum's mother, despite there only being an eight-year age difference between the two.
"I wasn't being shady!" Phaedra says in her own defense. "She knows that I just... Black don't crack, so Black folks, we just have a little edge in the beauty game especially the little chocolate girls, but I just... I had no idea. Brandi is fabulous, so youthful, you would never know that she's not a teenager. She gives you teenager, 21-year old vibes -- and she's obviously not 21 -- but she definitely is very youthful and very excitable, shall we say."
The viewers are loving the Ex-Wives Club, calling for this group of eight to reunite once a year to film a season of the franchise. While that's unlikely to happen, the ladies are expected at BravoCon 2022, where an onstage panel could turn into a reunion of sorts. Brandi recently called for one on Twitter, noting that "80 percent" of the women were feuding -- and mostly about stuff that's transpired since cameras went down last fall. The most recent incident involved Jill telling her Instagram followers that Tamra was confirmed to return to The Real Housewives of Orange County for season 17, despite no official announcement or confirmation from Bravo. Tamra clapped back with posts of her own, calling Jill "the thirstiest b***h I know" and telling her to "f**k off" on Twitter. Jill quickly walked back her claims in a follow-up post on Instagram, saying she doesn't know anything about Tamra's RHOC casting.
"We definitely have a Girls Trip text thread that gets very interesting sometimes," Phaedra confesses. "And you have to put it on mute because everyone's chattering about crazy stuff. But yeah, it definitely gets extremely interesting."
"It was very active this weekend," she continues, referencing the Jill/Tamra saga. "I think everybody's phone was very active this weekend because it was Jill's [charity] party and Vicki attended, but we obviously had some craziness that resulted from that event. ... I was supposed to attend the party, but I had something that came up and so I couldn't attend and now I'm happy I didn't, because I don't like to be in the middle of the mess. It's a lot of B words that go around in this type of busybody business."
Now having dipped her toe back into the Bravo waters, Phaedra is open to a more regular return to the network. She recently made a guest appearance on The Real Housewives of Dubai and admits she'd be down to join that crew in a full-time capacity. She's in the process of buying a home in the United Arab Emirates as she develops a sea moss-based vitamin/treatment line overseas.
"Now that, is a possibility. That is a strong possibility," she says of becoming a RHODubai 'Wife. "You've got to run with people who are obviously running with the same purpose and destination."
"If you get out of the miry clay, honey, you got to stay out of the miry clay," she quips, referencing the Bible's term for a troublesome situation.
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip streams on Peacock. The finale debuts this Thursday, July 21.
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