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Candiace Dillard-Bassett was recently forced to relive her fight with Monique Samuels.
One year after the women came to blows during a visit to a winery in Maryland, the Real Housewives of Potomac cast member admitted that the ordeal was difficult to watch before sharing the worst part and slamming Monique for her lack of remorse and inauthentic conversation with her pastor.
“It was awful to watch,” Candiace told Entertainment Tonight on October 16. “My heart was palpitating, I was angry all over again. I was frustrated. I was sad. I was embarrassed [and] I really hate that this is now a part of our legacy.”
“There’s this conversation about whether or not we have a responsibility to represent all Black women, and I’m in the few that believe, at least for me, I do feel a responsibility to represent Black women, because we are not yet in enough spaces to be understood … and I think that the only thing we can continue to do is to try and show that we are more than [a stereotype],” Candiace continued.
While Candiace has been accused of initiating her fight with Monique, Candiace claimed that was not the case.
“The biggest lie and the most hurtful, most traumatic thing was telling the blogs that I initiated the fight by throwing a glass of wine on her, because that is what I was viciously attacked for,” Candiace shared. “That’s what I got death threats for. I’ve had the hardest time, mentally dealing with.”
Although the airing of the dramatic encounter between the two women has resulted in a major shift when it comes to fan support, Candiace said that despite a weight being lifted when viewers saw what actually happened, she doesn’t feel much happier because it “doesn’t change what happened.”
Since the incident, Candiace hasn’t spoken to Monique and doesn’t understand why she hasn’t reached out.
“I just can’t wrap my mind around someone who can sleep at night and not be remorseful,” Candiace explained.
Candiace also targeted Monique’s recent on-camera conversation with her pastor.
“I think that her sitting down with her pastor was a stunt,” Candiace suspected. “I think she did it because she had to. I think, from the powers-that-be, she was being told that she needed to reroute this narrative, and that was the way that she knew best to do that, was to pimp out her pastor and her pastor’s wife and try to create some alternative universe.”
“You’re not sorry. You were never sorry, and all those tears that she was crying? I believe those tears, I believe they were real, but they were tears for her embarrassment and for her not being able to control herself,” Candiace continued. “There was no place in there where I think that she felt any kind of remorse for what she did to me.”
In addition to her drama with Monique, Candiace also experienced challenges with her castmate Ashley Darby, who took Monique’s side after their fight, even though she didn’t see what happened first-hand, and agreed to write a statement on Monique’s behalf to aid in her legal battle against Candiace.
“I don’t find her to be genuine,” Candiace said of Ashley. “I don’t find her to be someone who has a soul. She’s just, she moves in a particular way that does not work for me.”
Also during the interview, Candiace addressed her husband’s apparent altercation with Ashley’s husband, Michael Darby, which will air later this season on the show.
“Alcohol and perhaps other substances and crazy people don’t mix,” Candiace teased. “I don’t want to give anything away, but certain people just should not be allowed to be around the group, and that’s been proven time and time and time again.”
RHOP Live Viewing – This is also the live viewing thread for tonight’s all-new Real Housewives of Potomac season five episode, so feel free to comment and chat below as the new episode airs at 9 p.m. on Bravo.