Cynthia Bailey is dishing on the drama playing out on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” Season 16!
“Extra” spoke with Cynthia, who broke down some of the hottest topics, including Kenya’s unexpected departure after a conflict with Brit Eady, Porsha Williams’ return, and Porsha’s rough patch with Drew Sidora, who’s working with Porsha’s ex-fiancé, Dennis, behind her back!
In episode 4, an argument between Brit and Kenya escalated out of control when Brit claimed she had a pistol.
Bailey noted, “I was not there at the scene where the situation happened with Brit using the gun word, the pistol word, which I think is completely off-limits, like, you should never in any situation on this show bring up a gun."
She went on, “I feel like Brit made a mistake. It was just not the word to use, but I can appreciate that she immediately comes in, apologetic and remorseful and trying to get on the other side of it.” Cynthia added, "Of course, I'm not invalidating Kenya's feelings in any way."
Subsequently, at Kenya's salon opening, which viewers will soon see play out, Kenya allegedly displayed explicit images of Brit, an incident that ultimately led Bravo to cut ties with Kenya before filming wrapped.
Cynthia said, "I wish, in a perfect world, that if that's how Kenya was feeling, that she didn't even allow Brit to come to the salon opening. I feel like, in a lot of ways, had Brit not been there, maybe that situation would not have gone down. I think that the focus should have always been on Kenya Moore's amazing Kenya More Hair Care Salon opening... It just sucks because that situation ended up taking the focus away from the reason why we were there, which was to celebrate Kenya and Kenya Moore Hair Care."
"So, you guys will just have to watch it play out," Cynthia said. "Everyone will have their own opinion."
She emphasized, "I just think it's unfortunate for everyone involved, because I think the network had a a very amazing, very intentional vision with Season 16 with the cast that they put together, that they curated, which in my mind, was the dream team... It's just unfortunate that the fans don't get to see that cast play out... I felt like we had the dream team, we were headed to the Super Bowl, and then we lost one of our most valuable players."
She added, "We were all very sad to see Kenya go, because she is, hands down, one of the most polarizing Housewives of all time, and if you've got a Kenya Moore on your team, you've got a great chance of winning."
Kenya is out, but Bailey said she's “so happy” to see Porsha back, noting, "The fans really missed her."
She said, “My heart goes out a little bit to Porsha because she comes back, but like even outside of the show, she is in the middle of this divorce, which is quite messy, just to be honest. We have to watch it play out on the show, we're watching it play out online. It’s a lot. I've been divorced twice, but it wasn't this type of divorce. Thank you, Peter, thank you, Mike Hill, that it didn't have to play out in that way. So, I take my hat off to her that she’s able to really still give us Porsha amidst going through all this other persona drama."
Cynthia added of Porsha, "We have had our ups and downs throughout the seasons on the show, but she is hands down one of my favorite people. She's definitely one of my favorite people to laugh with. She is just reality TV gold."
Bailey also weighed in Drew’s decision to work with Porsha’s ex, saying, “I will put it on myself right now, I would never personally work with any of these ladies' baby daddies, husbands, boos, baes... Those are just boundaries that I would set and I wouldn't cross those boundaries, personally."
She emphasized, "Porsha definitely feels a way about it, obviously, which I completely get. I just feel like Drew just didn’t need that extra smoke. She’s so talented. I think there’s so many other producers that would have loved to work with Drew.”
Cynthia added, "Now, Drew said that he was her — what did she say — savior or godsend? Something to do with God, now. I'm gonna give her a little grace, now. If she really feel like God sent her that opportunity with Dennis, we ain't gonna go against God, now. You know what, if God said that's what he want for you, then we just gon' have to keep this situation in prayer."
Bailey also gave props to Bravo for the revamped cast, saying, “I love that the network really took their time with putting this cast together, and their vision for Season 16 is working... I think overall, they brought in the right amount of new and the right amount of OGs to get us to where we need to go with the show, to really put the fire back into Atlanta."
Could she ever return as a full-time Housewife on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”?
Bailey answered, “I would never say never, but I will say not right now. I really love the friend space that I'm in, but you never know! I don't know how long this thing is gonna keep going, so I don't know how I'm gonna feel in the next four or five years. You know, if it's an option and I feel like I'm in a space to do it and I have some things I wanna share, then sure, why not?"
“RHOA” airs Sundays on Bravo.
