The Real Housewives of Atlanta have got each other's backs. Well, some of them anyway.
First-time Housewife and four-time Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross talked about becoming the show's first Jamaican and Olympian star in an exclusive interview with E! News' Daily Pop, revealing the helpful tip she received from fellow cast member Kandi Burruss before filming began.
"Kandi just told me, she's like, ‘Be yourself,'" Sanya shared with host Justin Sylvester and The Real Housewives of Orange County's Heather Dubrow. "She also told me about showing up late. The first event I went to with the Housewives, I got there about 30 minutes late and I realized Atlanta's ‘fashionably late's about an hour, hour and a half. I was still early."
As a fellow Housewives star herself, Heather had to ask whether Sanya was informed about the most important rule on the show. "Did anyone tell you don't ever leave the table?" she asked.
"Don't leave the table, don't miss a beat," Sanya responded. "Yes, I got that advice early."
But when it comes to sitting down with her RHOA castmates, the star shared that not even the Olympics could have prepared her for the drama that goes down at the dinner table.
"I'm telling you, sitting at a dinner table with the girls from the Housewives might've been harder than training for the Olympics," she joked. "You're talking about a dynamic group of women who are very opinionated, who are always trying to get their points across. And so, I learned very quickly how to inject myself and make sure that I was heard. It was a lot of fun. But at sometimes I was, like, ‘This is harder than training for the Olympics!'"
Sanya also hinted at some drama with another Housewife when asked about her confessional interviews.
"I would say, probably in the first couple episodes, it's gonna be Drew Sidora," she revealed, "but I'm just keeping it real. They ask the questions, I got to keep it real, so I love you Drew!"
While fans will have to tune in to see what drama goes down between the two, one relationship that has blossomed off-camera is Sanya and Kandi's friendship. They even took their families on a joint vacation to Disney World, Legoland and Universal Studios in April 2022.
"Kandi and I have gotten super close, especially since we've wrapped filming," Sanya shared. "I feel like the thing I love about this opportunity has been really getting to know the ladies. I feel like that's what's different with this season is, like, we really are trying to build real friendships and you can feel it."
The track and field Olympian retired from the sport in 2016, and has since welcomed her first child—son Aaron Jermaine Ross II, 4, with husband Aaron Ross. Now focused on her new Bravo role, she said that her sporting days have likely come to an end.
"My heart will be willing, but my body is just no longer in that space," she said. "I do still get to still commentate with NBC, and I just feel like, to still be able to contribute to my sport in that way and to share the athletes' stories, that's where I'm at now, and I just love this place in my life."
Check out her full interview in the clip above.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta season 14 premieres Sunday, May 1 at 8 p.m. on Bravo. Catch up on past seasons now on Peacock.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)