Here's Why Phaedra Parks Kept Quiet About Her Divorce on The Real Housewives of Atlanta
“None of them had been supportive throughout the process,” the attorney said of the #RHOA ladies.
Phaedra Parks officially ended her marriage with Apollo Nida this season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, but she wasn't exactly shouting that news from the rooftops. In fact, Phaedra kept mostly mum about the details of her divorce, only telling a couple of her fellow Georgia Peaches, Porsha Williams and Cynthia Bailey, when it was final. We saw how well it went when the other ladies wanted Phaedra to open up about her former relationship, aka the most disastrous divorce party ever thrown by Kenya Moore during the group's trip to Hawaii.
Phaedra recently revealed to PEOPLE why she decided to keep her personal life private this season of RHOA. “I never wanted to negatively speak about Apollo,” she explained. “At the end of the day, Apollo is the children’s father. And so I want them to be able to make their own opinions about who he is as a father.”
Phaedra and Apollo have two children together: 6-year-old Ayden Nida and 3-year-old Dylan Nida. “I respect my children too much,” Phaedra added during her interview with PEOPLE. “I don’t want them to look back on television, tabloids, or something I said that will make them feel like their father was not a great father. I’m always doing things to err on the side of not saying anything if I can’t say anything that’s not nice about him. It was important to me to maintain some privacy around it.”
The RHOA attorney went on to explain why she didn't confide more in her castmates during this difficult time. “None of them had been supportive throughout the process,” she shared. “So I knew their questions weren’t coming from a place of support — it was from a place of being nosy, wanting to know what was going on with my marriage and the divorce.”
Phaedra explained during this season's RHOA reunion that she has divorced Apollo, but he has appealed their divorce settlement. She told PEOPLE that no progress has been made since then in finalizing the divorce for good. “The judge overturned it, so I’m forging forward to do whatever I need to do resolve this,” she said.
Meanwhile, Apollo has moved on with new fiancée Sherien Almufti, who appeared at the preview for Kandi Burruss' Old Lady Gang restaurant earlier this season of RHOA. Phaedra told PEOPLE that she doesn't know Apollo's fiancée. Her only concern moving forward with Apollo is that their children maintain a good relationship with their father. “I always want the boys to be able to have a good relationship with Apollo. And I hope that that’s his desire as well,” she said. “We’ve got two beautiful sons and my main objective is to make sure that they’re stable and happy and healthy. And that they have opportunities to do so and live with dignity.”
Phaedra will actually open up more about the troubling times in her marriage, including setting the record straight on those Mr. Chocolate rumors once and for all during the exciting conclusion of this season's RHOA reunion on Sunday at 8/7c. Check out a sneak peek, below.
