‘Real Housewives’ star Gizelle Bryant says season 5 ‘incident’ was ‘very hurtful’

Gizelle Bryant has never been afraid to share her honest opinion on a situation, especially when it involves her “Real Housewives of Potomac” co-stars.

So when it comes to discussing “the incident” — a heavily teased, headline-making physical altercation between cast members Monique Samuels and Candiace Dillard set to be featured later in the show’s current fifth season — the original cast member and self-proclaimed “word on the street” has some thoughts. More specifically, as Bryant said in a recent interview, she feels as though the fight directly diminishes the positive images of Black women that the cast has worked so hard to cultivate throughout their time on the show.

“The conversation that we had at Karen [Huger]’s house that day [after the fight] was literally about Black women and how we’re treated and how we’re perceived in this country and that is not good,” Bryant told In The Know’s Gibson Johns in an interview. “We aren’t taken seriously. We’re only looked at as violent and aggressive. We are the lowest person on the totem pole. We get paid — it’s, like, pennies on the dollar to everyone else.”

“We all felt like, look, the incident allowed the world to think the stereotype, when this show was breaking the mold of the stereotype,” she continued. “So why on earth would you just throw the stereotype in everybody’s face when we’ve worked so hard to not be that?”

As far as Bryant sees it, she and the rest of the original “RHOP” cast members — Karen Huger, Robyn Dixon and Ashley Darby — had spent four full seasons living their lives on camera in a manner that represented a step forward for Black women, and Samuels and Dillard’s altercation represented two steps backward.

“It was very, very hurtful, not just what — like, take Monique and Candiace out of it — it was hurtful because it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve worked so hard for five years, blood, sweat, and tears, for where we are with this platform. And I don’t want to take this platform and throw it in the trash can because you two want to act like nuts one night.’ Like, no,” she explained. “A lot of times, and we know this Black people, no matter how great you are, they’re always looking for that one time where you weren’t so great.”

“They’ll throw it in your face over and over again. We know that. We live with that. And I teach my daughters, like, this is how the world works,” Bryant added. “So we’ll always have that. You know, this franchise will always have that moment as kind of like a stain.”

While she would’ve preferred for the fight, which is set to air on Bravo this fall, to never have happened, the mother of three daughters does admit that what views as a setback did offer her the opportunity to have another open conversation with her children about this moment as a “bigger issue.”

“It did allow us to have these conversations, which is great. I got to go home and talk to my kids about it, which, you know, they were horrified. But after that, after they got over it, it was kind of like, ‘Look, this is what we don’t do. And these are the reasons why. And y’all know better.’ And so it did open the doors to that perspective,” she told ITK. “I’m happy. But it took me a long time to get to where I am today.”

“The Real Housewives of Potomac” airs on Sundays at 9 P.M. EST only on Bravo.

Listen to our full interview with Gizelle Bryant below:

If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent interview with “Real Housewives of Potomac” star Karen Huger here.

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