Bravo is teasing Cynthia Bailey’s return to RHOA with a preview of next week’s episode.
At the end of the July 30th episode of RHOA, Bravo included a preview of the episode airing August 6th which features the return of Cynthia alongside season 13 Friend LaToya Howard.
“These cheekbones are timeless,” Cynthia says in a voiceover as she is shown getting out of her car and stepping into a very rainy scene.
The full preview for the August 6th episode also showed the return of LaToya, who joined RHOA back in season 13 as a Friend of the Housewives.
As RHOA fans may remember, LaToya was meant to be a full-time Housewife but was demoted soon after she joined due to her husband not wanting their children to appear on camera. She went on to play a big part in the group’s drama, attending the much talked-about cast trip to Charleston, South Carolina which has been brought up again during the now-airing season 15.
Cynthia Bailey’s return to RHOA comes at a time when she was already making headlines associated with her time on the show thanks to a recent interview from former BFF NeNe Leakes.
NeNe Leakes calls out Cynthia Bailey
As previously reported on TVDeets.com, NeNe told Carlos King on a recent episode of his podcast Reality With The King that Cynthia once tried to get her fired from the show.
“I loved Cynthia like she was my sister, we had a great friendship, and I think people watching us probably felt like I was more of the leader in the friendship, or more of something… they just don’t know Cynthia,” she told Carlos. “Cynthia is quite different than how she is behind-the-scenes. She’s not going to let you run over her — that’s not possible… Or people thinking that she’s being ran over or people thinking that she’s quiet, she’s very opinionated… she has a lot to say and she stands up for herself.”
When asked why Cynthia didn’t want to show her true personality on RHOA Season 1, NeNe had some thoughts. “There’s a lot of these girls that come on this show and they don’t show who they are. Remember, I made a conscious decision season 1 to just be who I am,” she explained. “Some of these girls come on and they play with their head: ‘I don’t want to be seen that way’ or ‘my family would die if I was seen that way’ or ‘my husband doesn’t want me to do this’ or ‘my boyfriend said I can’t do that’ and so they create some character and I just think Cynthia just never wanted people to really see her be as she likes to say, 50 Cynt.”
Carlos asked NeNe directly if she missed her friendship with Cynthia and it is clear there is no love lost between the former BFFs. “I miss the friendship that we had because I feel like we had a really good friendship and I cherish my friendships and I feel like it’s hard to find really good friends,” she said. “It’s unfortunate what happened with our friendship.”
“I don’t think that [reconciliation] will ever be possible,” she continued. “I just know some of the things she has done behind-the-scenes that I could never, ever respect. Now, I can’t respect them but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t work with her. I could work with her but I couldn’t respect some of the stuff I know for certain that she did.”
Carlos continued to press, asking NeNe if Cynthia was trying to stop her bag. “As much as she was on camera saying I was trying to stop hers, she was definitely trying to stop mine,” NeNe responded as only NeNe can. “I know a lot of things she did, honey. She was in an alliance too, honey… She was in an alliance with Housewives and behind-the-scenes with Housewives and the network.”
While NeNe is not going to appear on RHOA this season, it should be interesting to watch and see if Cynthia discusses her friendship with her or any of the ladies during the upcoming episode.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays on Bravo.