Phaedra Parks’ ex-husband is one year closer to coming home.
A judge reduced Apollo Nida’s sentence by 12 months, according to court documents obtained by “Entertainment Tonight” and other outlets this week.
Nida was initially sentenced to eight years in federal prison in July 2014 after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Federal prosecutors said at the time he stole millions of dollars from at least 50 people over the course of four years.
Phaedra Parks and then-husband Apollo Nida from Bravo’s “Real Housewives Of Atlanta”, poses for red carpet photos for “A Mother’s Love” stage play at the Rialto Center For The Arts in Atlanta on November 22, 2013. (Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
It is the second stint in prison for the former Bravolebrity. He previously served five years in federal prison for auto title fraud prior to his marriage to Parks in 2009.
With the reduction in Nida’s sentence, he will now be released in just over a year in August 2020.
Parks has not issued any public response to her ex’s prison release, but she has previously discussed what it’s like raising their sons as a single mother during his time in the slammer.
“Hindsight is always 20/20, but it was very hard for a while trying to figure it out,” she told People magazine in 2016. “Things have leveled out now. Boys are both in school, my parents are helping out, uncles are helping out, I have a night manager, a great governess — I have surrounded myself with people who encourage me and really support me.”
More recently, she dedicated a post on Instagram to the many men in her life who have helped her to guide sons 8-year-old Ayden Nida and 5-year-old Dylan Nida.
“I can’t say #thankyou enough to the wonderful men in who help me navigate it all seamlessly. Guys I could not do it without you,” she said on Instagram back in February before listing off her pals.
Still, Nida coming home early may be good for their young kids.
An insider told Radar Online in 2018 that Parks has hardly ever taken her boys to visit their incarcerated father.
“Phaedra has not gone to see Apollo in like two years,” the source said at the time. “The kids rarely see Apollo — it is just too hard on them.”
“Phaedra does not want to put them through that,” the insider added after stating the boys “cried for three days” the last time they visited the facility. “Apollo calls Phaedra every day or every other day to speak to the boys. It is 100 percent all about the kids at this point. If the boys have seen their father, it was not with Phaedra.”
