This is posted Sunday, December 18, 2016 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Kandi Burruss generally doesn't generate drama out of thin air but her beef with Phaedra Parks is an unusual moment where festering resentments burbled to the surface on tonight's episode of "Real Housewives of Atlanta."
She and Phaedra were once close friends but since Apollo Nida's imprisonment in 2014, the two of them have drifted apart.
Phaedra felt like Kandi, whose life was coming together as she got married and had a baby with Todd Tucker, wasn't a good friend when Phaedra needed her. Kandi was busy at the time. She also does not seem like the type of girlfriend who sits around helping out others emotionally when they're down. That isn't a slight. That just isn't her strength.
Kandi hated that Phaedra was bad-mouthing Kandi's husband Todd behind his back (or in front of Bravo's cameras) when he was seeking final payment on the exercise video they worked on but never released.
Now Kandi feels Phaedra's prevarications and slippy explanations were very much in display after Drama was arrested for allegedly making bomb threats at Phaedra's office. Phaedra said he was racially profiled and was dropping off some "bomb" CDs and his behavior freaked out security. She said she supported Drama 100 percent.
Kandi said if Phaedra was feeling so comfortable, why did she have a bodyguard at an event? The two meet up at an eatery because Phaedra is still upset that Kandi's mom Mama Joyce had read some gossip site that claimed Drama threatened to blow Phaedra's office up.
Kandi has nothing to apologize for concerning her mom. Phaedra said her parents hired the bodyguard, not her.
Phaedra, Kandi said, told her in 2014 that she was thrilled that Apollo was leaving for prison and was ready to be freed of that burden and stress. Yet she told others (like NeNe Leakes) how pitiful and awful she felt. Kandi said she isn't sure who the real Phaedra is.
Ultimately, Kandi said their friendship is irreparably damaged and left before the meal was even served.
In other storylines:
Porsha Williams babysits Phaedra's two sons Dylan and Ayden. She enjoys it though she realizes how tiring it is with two young boys. She offers to babysit Phaedra's kids in the future so Phaedra can more freely date.
She is possibly dating this guy Todd Stewart, someone she had dated in her mid-20s. She has Todd meet her family members. They grill him. He's very quiet until he says he loves Porsha and hopes their relationship continues. Porsha is surprised. She doesn't throw the "L" word around to him, though. It's hard to say how serious this relationship is.
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Kenya Moore keeps her story line going with Matt Jordan after he broke her garage glass door in what appeared to be a rage. Kenya has her father give him the once over in person at a cigar bar. Matt is somewhat apologetic but not really. He is suspicious that he is always being "set up" by Kenya and her insatiable hunger for attention for reality show purposes. In a RadarOnline interview, he had claimed the whole garage glass breaking was fake. She then leaked info that he had been arrested four times for violent activity in a span of a year. This relationship has a great future, doesn't it?
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Sheree Whitfield is now managing her 19-year-old Kairo's burgeoning modeling career. Kairo is tall, handsome and in great abs-worthy shape. But when she approaches Cynthia Bailey for advice, she has the audacity to ask if he could make it to New York Fashion Week, which is as Cynthia says, "the Super Bowl" for models. Cynthia suggests baby steps and says he needs to take some runway classes. We now know why Sheree isn't a businesswoman. She is playing "momanager" without any real knowledge of the fashion world and takes umbrage with Cynthia's reasonable suggestions.
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Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Cynthia Bailey sold her Glenwood Park house and quickly got a new one in Sandy Springs, a beautiful six bedroom, four and a half bath lakeside home for $940,000 on August 30. It's about a 25-minute commute (no traffic) to the Bailey Agency and only about 10 miles from the homes of Sheree and Kenya and 13 miles from Phaedra's new pad.
Porsha is the only Gwinnett County resident among the "Real Housewives. She purchased a home in Duluth in November not far from that of NeNe Leakes.
Kandi lives in a huge crib in Southwest Atlanta in a home she purchased in 2012.
