Gossip and innuendo are par for the course with the Real Housewives franchise, but even then, there’s a line that just cannot be crossed.
Phaedra Parks crossed it, and has been fired from The Real Housewives of Atlanta for spreading lies and rumors about her co-stars.
According to TMZ, citing sources close to production, Phaedra was let go over a rumor she told Porsha Williams about Kandi Burruss.
During the course of this latest season, the story she spread continued to fester, finally boiling over during this past Sunday’s reunion.
Now, we know what you’re thinking:
Doesn’t Lisa Rinna have a job over on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills by virtue of stirring the pot and talking s–t about everyone?
Well allegedly, Phaedra Parks told Porsha Williams that Kandi Burruss and her husband, Todd Tucker, were planning to drug Porsha.
Once they did that, their plan – again, this is according to Parks – was to take Porsha home to their place to take advantage of sexually.
Kandi Burruss got wind of this and threatened Bravo. If they aired that clip, she told them, there would be hell to pay … so they didn’t.
However, on Sunday’s finale of The Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, the “secret” got out, and Phaedra was outed as the source.
Bravo felt that Phaedra’s allegations were so far beyond the pale, they simply couldn’t continue working with her – and no longer will be.
It all came to a head when a crying Porsha confronted Phaedra about the one-on-one conversations they had conducted about Kandi.
“I repeated it ’cause I heard it,” Phaedra said of the rumor, giving pretty much the least credible, convincing or sympathetic reply imaginable.
The rest of the cast wasn’t buying it, either.
Porsha Williams immediately corrected her:
“No, she [Kandi] said it to you, Phaedra.”
“You told me she said it to you.”
“Something was brought to me, and I repeated it,” Phaedra replied, probably thinking about how fast she could get a flight out of town.
With Kandi sobbing and insisting that Phaedra basically accused her of rape, the cast was shocked (Cynthia’s mouth was on the floor).
“There’s no tears even coming out your eyes,” Kenya Moore said, feigning indignation over the fact that ANYone could do such a thing.
“It’s the Pinocchio Complex,” said Todd Tucker, the implication being that she just lies and lies so much that she can’t even feel feelings.
As a stoic Phaedra sat there, she insisted she heard this somewhere, rather than making it up, a story that just didn’t add up.
Porsha, who smelled a rat from the get-go here, then let her (now-former) co-star have it with the mother of all comebacks:
“You know damn well the day you told me that, two days before I sat with Kandi, you said she told you firsthand!” Williams said.
“Then two days ago we talked on the phone,” she continued, and once again, she says, “you told me that she said it firsthand.”
“Now, what I’m not gonna do is go back in text messages and reveal that, because we don’t need no motherf–king receipts.”
Damn. That’s just cold … albeit deserved.
Obviously Bravo agreed, because she’s out.
Parks’ children now have a father (Apollo Nida) in prison and a mother who falsely accused two co-stars of plotting a third co-star’s rape.
We honestly feel for those poor boys.
Follow the link to watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta online at TV Fanatic and relive Parks’ storied career and epic fall from grace.