Kandi Burruss on Phaedra Parks After Real Housewives of Atlanta Drama: "We Can Never Talk Again"

E! News caught up with the Bravo star to get an update on what's happened since the RHOA reunion

By Chris Harnick, Beth Sobol May 26, 2017 5:42 PMTags
Watch: Andy Cohen Talks Phaedra Parks' Messy Exit From "RHOA"

The lies are over and Kandi Burruss is moving on after one brutal season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. The Bravo reality series had a history-making four-part reunion where everything about the supposed drugging story came to light for Kandi and costars Phaedra Parks, Porsha Williams, Sheree Whitfield, Cynthia Bailey and Kenya Moore.

E! News spoke with Kandi about the RHOA reunion reveals at the Fueled by Culture dinner where she was presented with the Fortune Insider Award by Marcus Damas. The event, which was sponsored by Lyft and Avion Tequila, was held at the Hunt & Fish Club in New York City.

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"It's a relief to me that my name was cleared, that people no longer have to wonder if I would do something like that," she said about the drugging rumors and "lesbiangate" reveals coming out. "You can't fight a lie. I'm just so glad the truth finally came out because I would never want something like that to be attached to me."

E! News previously reported Phaedra Parks is not returning to The Real Housewives of Atlanta. When Andy Cohen, Real Housewives executive producer, spoke to us at the 2017 NBCUniversal Upfront, he said they were in a bit of a pickle.

"The question that we look at now with Phaedra is, when the reunion ended, none of the other women wanted to have anything to do with her. So that's what you have to look at," he told us. "How do you shoot a show about a group of friends when no one is speaking to one of the friends?"

Kandi agreed that the cast does not with to work with Phaedra.

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"At the end of the day, all the girls throw shade at each other, but to know that people actually plot, behind the scenes, to plant information on people that's completely made up, that's a real problem. It wasn't even for the sake of television; it was for the sake of tearing me down," Kandi said. "The fact that she never once let on that she had anything to do with it, clearly, she just wants to tear down my reputation, kill my fan base, hurt my business. It was really just terrible. And then she's supposed to be friends with Porsha? Then she set her up to be the fall guy? That's a lot of plotting going on. People don't want to deal with that."

Kandi said she hasn't seen or spoken to Porsha since the reunion.

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"I'm still not feeling her either. At the end of the day, she knew it was a lie. She cannot sit there and say she believed it. I'm happy she finally told the truth, I'll give her that," she said. "But did you tell the truth because you were tired of people tearing you down, saying you were a liar, or did you do it for the right reasons?"

As for Phaedra, Kandi said she would never have anything to do with her again. "As far as Porsha is concerned, she and I will probably end up having to have a conversation about this. I'll still probably never be close with her again. But Phaedra? We can never talk again," she said.

But there is a "bright light" in all of this: Kandi's baby Ace.

"Ace is amazing," she said. "Right now he's in a climbing phase. He likes to climb everything. I guess that's all a part of having a boy."

The Real Housewives of Atlanta will return to Bravo.

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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