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We Finally Know How Phaedra Parks and Apollo Nida Met and It's Not What We Were Expecting

The RHOA alum reflects on the origins of her romance with her ex-husband.

By Jocelyn Vena
Phaedra and the Kids Visit Apollo in Prison

Phaedra Parks might have a new man in her life these days, but her relationship with ex-husband Apollo Nida continues to be a hot topic. And now we're learning a bit more about how Phaedra and Apollo met way back in the day. The Real Housewives of Atlanta alum spilled their backstory in an interview with DailyMailTV  and it's not exactly what we were expecting.

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Phaedra revealed that she met Apollo in 1995 after he flagged down her car on the highway in Atlanta. "He saw me, flagged me down, we met, and he followed me home and walked up to my doorstep and said, 'Hey, I want you to be my girlfriend.' And so that's how we got together," she said. "Apollo was extremely nice, always very generous, just a really good guy."

The couple had an on-again, off-again for about a decade after that encounter. Apollo initially served a six-year prison sentence in the early 2000s in connection with a car theft scheme. After he was released, they picked up again because as she explained, "I thought he was changed, I honestly did, he seemed like he had matured a lot. He was very focused on settling down and having a family, he was still very much in love with me and I thought he was still cute. I just knew we always had a true connection and had known each other for over a decade. I knew his family, he knew my entire family, and we had been around each other."

The couple eventually started a family and married, but Apollo once again found himself in trouble with the law. She said, "I was done. From the moment I discovered that he had done all this stuff, I was finished with that relationship."

Phaedra on Apollo & Their Divorce

Phaedra announced her plans to divorce the father of her two children, Ayden, 9, and Dylan, 6, in 2014 after five years of marriage; they reportedly reached a divorce settlement in 2017.

Apollo was originally sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and identity theft in 2014. However, Apollo's sentence was reduced by one year in March 2019. After he was released, he was taken into custody at the Philadelphia Federal Court House and placed back into the system after he had allegedly broken a technical condition of his release in June. He could now remain in prison until his original release date of October 15, 2019.

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