Credit: Bravo
Candiace Dillard-Bassett is opening up about how her husband, Chris Bassett, handled the allegations of inappropriate behavior he faced from Gizelle Bryant and Ashley Darby amid the seventh season of The Real Housewives of Potomac.
After Gizelle accused Chris of making her feel uncomfortable during a private chat at the season six reunion and Ashley called him out for sending her a late-night DM and making a pass at her friend, Candiace admitted he was “not well” and “very hurt” by the women’s claims.
“He was not well. As [Dorinda Medley] would say, ‘Not well, b-tch,’” Candiace said on Page Six‘s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast. “He was not well for quite a while. It was a mind eff for him to have this picture painted of him because that’s what Gizelle did … She painted a picture of him that didn’t belong to him. She created a narrative that was completely false and damaging and hurtful.”
Although Candiace and Chris were “blown away” by the amount of support they received from fans, many of whom called “BS” on the allegations and said they “didn’t believe it,” she said there’s always that “0.5 percent that says, ‘Oh, he did it.'”
“There are headlines that will live on the internet that insinuate that my husband is a predator, and you can’t undo that. And that’s why it’s so damaging for people to be able to make things up,” she explained. “It’s hurtful, and he was very hurt by it.”
After breaking the fourth wall to defend Chris, telling producers, “If it’s going to be about maligning my f-cking husband, you don’t want me here,” Candiace likened Gizelle’s antics against her husband to a “rehearsed Broadway show that sold two tickets.”
“In my mind, I’m like, ‘What is happening? What’s going on? What are we doing?’” she recalled. “You can’t be happily married [on this show]. That’s the rule. If you’re happily married, they’re going to come for you, they’re going to attack and you just have to be ready with your marital armor — which we are.”
According to Candiace, RHOP is supposed to be about the real lives of the cast. So, if Gizelle or anyone else doesn’t have a genuine story to offer, they should “find a seat or the unemployment line.”
As for her own future with the show, Candiace said she and Chris talk a lot about that.
“When I came on to this platform, my goal was to use this platform to get to where I am,” she said. “It’s working … For as long as I am having fun on Housewives — which very much was tested in [season seven] — I will be here.”
Candiace went on to say that she likes “a few of [her] castmates on most days,” and that being a part of RHOP is “still worth it” and even “fun” at times.
“So I’m here until I’m not or until they fire me,” she noted. “Whichever comes first.”
The Real Housewives of Potomac season seven airs Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.