Last week Monique Samuels used her Q&A panel on her YouTube show “Tea with Monique” to come to Andy Cohen‘s defense following his “Real Housewives of Potomac” reunion backlash. Cohen recently blamed editing for what many are calling his one-sided approach to addressing the altercation between Samuels and her former co-star Candiace Dillard.
Samuels disclosed she wasn’t upset with Cohen for doing his job and wished the reunion special had more than the three parts the network gave them.
She said on mark 51:30 of her Jan. 7 show, “I knew going into the reunion that it was going to be heavy for me and that it was going to be a lot of heat coming in my direction. So on one side, I can’t really be upset with Andy. He was doing his job. That’s what he was there to do. But on the other side, I definitely can agree and wished they would have shown four parts, because there was so much more that was talked about, not even just with the issue of me and Candiace. Just in general.”
The former reality star also opined that she and Dillard were not presented equally by the editing.
“I’ll put it like this, we filmed for 11 hours. I was in the hot seat for a good five, six of those hours. But I will say, we all thought we were going to get four parts, and what we got was three and a half. We should’ve had four. There was a lot more to be shown, but I’m definitely not going to sit here and say that it was equal. The accountability definitely wasn’t equal.”
When asked by a panelist if Samuels felt Cohen disliked her, the 37-year-old admitted that she’s never felt that way and said he gave her ample opportunities to say her piece during the special, although the reunion didn’t show all of it.
“I felt during that time he definitely was giving me opportunities to say what I need to say and even when my husband [Chris Samuels] came out he made sure my husband was able to speak but y’all didn’t see all of that.”
During the panel, Samuels further explained why she decided to walk away from the hit Bravo franchise. The former “RHOP” star said the final straw was the claim that just to create a storyline she brought up the rumor that she’d had an affair with her trainer and he is the actual father of her youngest child.
“My final straw was, let me break this whole thing down at the point where an issue so serious which involves an innocent child has painted a picture as if me and my husband brought that information purposefully to the show for a storyline. That’s complete and utter bullsh–t.”
She added she wasn’t going to fight production or the network if they didn’t want to hold all parties accountable for their involvement behind the accusations after the show shared Samuels’ response to the rumors during the reunion.
“It’s just not equal, and it’s not measuring up. If you’re gonna show our response you need to show what prompted that. So if Candiace’s live show had been shown on the reunion and that would’ve had literally just showed everybody there was a plot. They were literally planning this and they used the whole trainer situation as an alternative to still introduce a narrative to the show. That part is what sent me over the edge and I was like, you know what, I’m not gonna fight the women, production, and the network. I’m good, bye.”
Samuels announced she was leaving “RHOP” last month during an Instagram Live chat.
