Phaedra Parks Opens Up About Life Without Apollo

Last October, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks confirmed she would be divorcing Apollo Nida after he entered prison for an 8-year sentence for fraud. In the months since, she has since been trying to deal with the attention from the divorce the best way she knows how: like a Southern Belle.

"Like many women I had this ideal picture of the American dream and I thought I was actually living it," she told Steve Harvey on his talk show Monday. "This was like death of a dream because I thought that I had married someone that I thought I was going to fill this incredible life with. I've got two beautiful kids and this pretty much ended it all very abruptly. I think that people go through things all the time and they handle it differently and I think I've handled it the best way that I knew how. I've tried to handle it in a way that my sons could be proud of me, but also hopefully I could show to other women when you have very hard situations you can still be a lady and maintain a sense of dignity."

During the candid chat, Phaedra also revealed which of her fellow Atlanta housewives have been the most supportive of her in the wake of the split.

"To answer that, they really haven't been," she said. "Well, I can't say all of them haven't been. Porsha and NeNe have been very supportive, but they have been through similar situations. Not like mine, no prison or anything like that, but they've had situations in their marriages and relationships that were very difficult that played out in public."

In fact, NeNe has been in contact quite a lot with Phaedra.

"And so NeNe, you know, she has been the person who has called me every day, sent me texts just to make sure I was OK and just really been very supportive," she said. "You know, we're not the best of friends, but she has been a wonderful friend throughout this ordeal."

So how has Phaedra been dealing when the cameras aren't rolling?

"It's extremely tough because, of course, when you're on TV people judge you and they think actually know you," she said. "And like I always tell people reality isn't always real. You see a portion of our lives, a very small snippet, and you don't know the entire story...This is real life. I'm a mother. I have feelings like everyone else. I have these two great boys that I'm trying to raise into healthy strong men. This is not what I signed up for."

[Source: YouTube]