Kenya Moore’s ode to her best friend got sidetracked when a commenter decided to question how genuine her marriage is.
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star uploaded a series of photos of herself with her pal Brandon Deshazer on Instagram Jan. 2 to celebrate his birthday.
“#Thisisus Happy Birthday to @brandondeshay you are my heart, my best friend, my Confidant, my love. I can’t tell you how blessed I am to have you in my life. I feel like we were separated At birth bc we literally always think the same thoughts at the same time.
Thank you for being my cheerleader and for boosting my ego and always telling me the truth about myself. I love u so much. May all your dreams come true. Your sister. ❤️💕🧁”‘
(@thekenyamoore/Instagram)
Several fans were touched by the ode and sent Deshazer well-wishes for his birthday. But one commenter zeroed in on the first photo of Moore and her pal, who walked her down the aisle at her secret wedding to Marc Daly in June 2017. Moore notoriously eloped with the New York-based restaurateur in St. Lucia without inviting all of her family or Bravo cameras to capture the moment for RHOA. Moore’s high school best friend, Shonda, and aunts Lori and Lisa were present, but her father, Ronald Grant, was not.
“So he went to your wedding and not your close friends and family 🤔🤔🤫🤫 still think this wedding/relationship was somewhat negotiated,” @migelitorivsand said of Deshazer’s involvement in her wedding to Daly.
Moore’s supporters came out in droves to stick up for her.
“@migelitorivsand her aunt was there. Not that it’s your business sus. It’s 2019. Find a life.”
“@migelitorivsand he is her close friend though.”
“@migelitorivsand Lol, y’all stay so uninformed. Every Kenya fan knows how close Kenya and Brandon are and have been for many years. The truth is that these members on the show are ‘cast’ members not real friends.”
Yet, the Instagram user’s claims about her union may not have come out of thin air. When Moore joined “RHOA” in 2012, she was dating Walter Jackson, a towing company owner. But during an interview with Atlanta’s V-103 that year, he disclosed that he was only acting as her man after they dated for just three months back in 2009.
“Everybody was like, hey, man, get your fifteen minutes of fame. So, I said, ‘OK, I can play your boyfriend’,” Jackson said on “Frank and Wanda In The Morning.” “She told me it’s like acting. Nobody in Atlanta has seen me out with Kenya. Frank [Ski], you know I go to all the events.”
Jackson noted the faux relationship was worked out between himself and Moore with no involvement from producers. But he noted he had no clue about her talk of marriage saying, “this is not what I signed up for.”
Once that relationship fizzled, Moore’s next major romance on the show was with Matt Jordan. He is a personal trainer whom she later accused of stalking her when things went south. His explosive reactions played out in front of “RHOA” cameras, including the aftermath of him allegedly breaking the windows in her garage.
In a lengthy Instagram rant that has since been deleted, Jordan tore into Moore and accused her of spreading lies about him and their relationship.
“Please stop lying!!!” he said. “The whole abusive boyfriend thing I’ll let it play out even though I was totally against the whole idea in the first place. … Any of them brothers wanted you they would have had you a long time ago. Sorry its just the truth. I won’t be made out to be jealous or insecure that’s never been a part of my makeup or my character. But now that we’re done filming you need to be able to dispose of me properly. So when you’re interviewed you can point to a pic of HOV (happy bday brother) From 96 and say I was jealous of a photo I never felt no way about. But conveniently leave out how you messaged my publicist to take down the video of me and Marlo [Hampton] because fans kept saying I looked better with her…stop it.”
Moore’s dating life stopped being the focus of her storyline on the show after that, even though she had been seeing Daly. She married him without telling “RHOA” producers about the nuptials. And when she did come back as an officially taken woman, she refused to allow Bravo to film her life as a wife. Unlike the husbands of her cast-mates, Daly only appeared once in a brief scene during what would be Moore’s final season on the show.
It’s said that Moore’s firing from the program stemmed from her refusal to share her life completely on the reality show.
