During a recent interview local Charlotte Show ‘Midday With Vonyetta, Peter adamantly defends Apollo Nida and blames Phaedra Parks for their divorce.
“She’s a liar,” says Peter. “There’s two Phaedra Parks. She contradicts herself in every episode. She talks about the prayer cloth, and chile, and God and all of that stuff, and then at the same time she’s the wildest freak on the show. She’s fake!”
Peter adds, “She got two sisters up here in Charlotte that I met the other day. Her father have a church up here and her own people don’t even mess with her.”
Peter claims not only did Phaedra turn her back on Apollo, but she was the one cheating – not him!
“She knew exactly what Apollo was doing when he was doing it – when he was committing bank fraud and all of those frauds and living up in the house with her -and getting that brand new house in Buckhead… [Phaedra and Apollo bought a foreclosure in Buckhead for well under market value after selling her original home for over $300k.],” accuses Peter. “She knew what the man was doing when he had 3 – 4 cars and can’t show you a paystub.”
According to Peter, Phaedra’s mindset was, “‘Chile – as long as you don’t get caught, cause I don’t have nothin’ to do with it. Cause you know I ain’t gonna have your back if you get caught…’ He’s been in the joint two years now – he saw her twice. Once she went up there because she was forced by the network to bring the kids; the second time she went up there to con him to signing some divorce papers.”
“He was doing a lot of stuff but he wasn’t cheating on his wife. Nobody knew about any infidelity with Apollo while he was on the streets. Apollo didn’t have no girlfriend coming to the cameras talking about ‘He was with me while he was with her.’ You know when you do dirt people gonna find out and they can’t wait to blow your head off and you never hear anything about Apollo. Ever.”
Peter claims Apollo was “very distraught” about finding text messages allegedly from ‘Mr. Chocolate’ on Phaedra’s phone.
Yet, Peter admits that Apollo met his fiancé, Sherien Almfuti, before he went to prison.
“I met that girl before he went away and they were friends…and I could tell they were friends, because he didn’t have nothing to hide at that point. And she’s a person that held his back.”
“They met in Philly,” Peter clarifies. “When he was doing his activities in different states, he probably wanted people that, you know, had to do some paperwork for him – that’s speculation. And she came down to see him off before he had to turn himself in. We all went out one night and she was there, and I knew by his behavior with other people around, ’cause at that point him and Phaedra wasn’t together and at that point he had already revealed that he saw all of those texts in her phone, so if he was with her it was displayed that night.”
Of what attracted Sherien to Apollo, Peter says, “He’s a great guy, outside of his criminal activities. He’s a good person.”
Then Peter Thomas opens up about his split from Cynthia Bailey. Peter says it’s already been finalized and we’ll see that towards the end of this season.
Peter blames the split on Cynthia. He claims he wanted to go to counseling to try to work things out, but Cynthia didn’t. “I knew that was coming,” shares Peter. “Because Cynthia the kinda person… when she walk in a room, she already looking for the backdoor. Cynthia Bailey and I took vows and said we were gonna ride together til the end. Cynthia Bailey got off that train when I was still on it, so I’m still in my feelings about that. Cause when I’m in something, I’m 1000 percent in it.”
“I also said I didn’t want anything from the divorce. I could split the salary that she gets, but why am I doing that? I’m a hustler, she isn’t. I teach her how to hustle – so let her keep that salary. I know I could pick myself up, dust myself off and go out and get it again.”
Peter also insists the ‘cheating video’ was misrepresented. “I’m not looking around to see what’s better – I’m with the person that I’m with.”
According to Peter, a big reason for their split was that Cynthia didn’t support his career, and turned her back on what they were supposed to be building together.
“If you don’t believe in what I do for a living, than you don’t believe in me, so that was the demise of our marriage. So that started 4/5 years ago. ” Peter complains. He claims even Leon agreed with his perspective (and supposedly said-so on RHOA). “One of the things that Leon said was, ‘You was busy doing you and Peter was busy helping you and doing Peter at the same time.’ Everybody recognized it around her that I helped her get to where she is. Cynthia Bailey wasn’t a business person; Cynthia Bailey was a girl who punched the clock for the modeling thing for 25 years. I told her that you have a name, which is a brand, and you should turn that brand into something and I helped her.”
Peter does acknowledge that RHOA gave them both the needed exposure to be successful, which he wouldn’t have been part of without Cynthia. He doesn’t feel the show made him or their marriage look bad, however the stress of filming exacerbated their issues.
“We didn’t make time for each other,” Peter explains. “Our home was never our home anymore. Everyday when you get up in the morning the glam squad is there; if the glam squad is not there then Bravo people are there, and five days a week. Your home is not a sanctuary anymore, it’s like a workplace. So we never really had any time together. And Cynthia wasn’t probably as skillful as a lot [of Housewives] when it came to doing the show. So what usually ended up happening is that she would go to bed talking to NeNe; she used to wake up talking to NeNe … And when her and NeNe fell out, then it becomes her and [Claudia Jordan], and then after her it was Kenya. They always have to have alliance going on.”
“The reason why this show works is because everything that you see on this show is real. They pay these girls a lotta money – millions of dollars – so they gotta make sure whoever they align themselves with is for real. And when it falls-out – pfffft…” Peter gives the example of NeNe going on WWHL and saying Cynthia should be fired as an example of how detrimental ending the alliances can be.
“That’s why you see the fall-out between Phaedra and Kandi being as dramatic as it is,” cites Peter, “cause for years them two was real tight. It’s real-real right now.” He faults Phaedra for “partnering up with NeNe” as the cause. “Kandi was offended,” he says.
Peter does not have that problem. “I’m always true to me,” he declares.
“There’s a certain respect factor that I maintained toward, a certain integrity I maintained toward all seven seasons doing this show.” Like this season certain castmates tried to convince him to reunite with Cynthia “on the international trip,” but Peter refused. “When we were together, we should’ve stayed together!”
“I’m on the contract with Bravo. They said ‘Hawaii,’ I said ‘I’m there!‘ It’s a great payday and it’s a great experience being around those people,” says Peter. “I’ve been an alumni in the Housewife franchise for the last seven years. And I had fun with the trip. I had fun being around Cynthia. I don’t have those emotional feelings towards her. I cut that off.”
“We are friends,” he states, but he has no plans to ever visit “Lake Bailey” or get too involved in Cynthia’s life. “When a relationship is over for me, it’s over for me. I am attached to Noelle. Noelle just spent a weekend here with me in Charlotte.” He’s also still cool with Leon.
In fact, Peter is currently in a new relationship, but is keeping it private until the show finishes airing. “People are very critical and very judgmental. The person that I’m slinging with – they don’t want to look like they a home wrecker, or a jump off.”
In other Peter news he’s currently filming a spinoff about relocating Bar One to Charlotte called “Building Bar One.” Carlos King, the Executive Producer of RHOA, is also the executive producer and “show runner” for Peter’s show.
“We cast around 15 people… They should be shooting a pilot for it by the end of January, beginning of February. Bravo knows, or I should say True Entertainment [which produces RHOA], knows what they’re getting from me. The people we have cast… they’re very excited about those people. I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood that it’s a go… ”
Transcript courtesy via Reality Tea
Photo Credit: Bravo