RHOA’s Cynthia Bailey Shares How Phaedra Parks Earned Her Peach Back in Just 2 Weeks of Filming (Exclusive)

Phaedra Parks managed to get her Real Housewives of Atlanta peach back with just two weeks left of filming for season 16, and costar Cynthia Bailey says that “she showed out.”

“It’s been a long time coming. No. 1, she’s been away from the show for a while now, and I have to say she literally came in within, like, two and a half weeks left of filming and did something that’s never been done before the history of Housewives,” Cynthia, 57, exclusively told Us Weekly on Sunday, November 10, at the 1st Annual Gurus Awards.

She added, “[Phaedra] is a full peach holder with only two and a half weeks work, child, but I will say she showed up and she showed out. She definitely showed up.”

Phaedra, 51, first received a peach — Housewives status on RHOA since Georgia is known as the Peach State — in 2010, holding onto it for seven years. News broke in 2017 that she was fired by Bravo for spreading rumors about costar Kandi Burruss and her husband, Todd Tucker, allegedly wanting to drug Porsha Williams. (Both Kandi, 48, and Todd, 51, repeatedly denied the allegations at the time.)

Phaedra recently revealed in July that she would be returning to RHOA season 16. Cynthia, for her part, will appear on the new episodes as a friend after leaving the Bravo franchise in 2021. (Cynthia starred on RHOA for seasons 3 to 13.)

While speaking to Us at the awards ceremony held at the SLS Beverly Hills, Cynthia further teased Phaedra’s return.

“I guess you had a lot of time to prepare because when I tell you, she came in and she came in hot,” Cynthia, wearing a Tadashi Shoji gown, said with a laugh. “All of her fans are gonna be very, very excited to have her back.”

RHOA season 16 will also star Williams, 43, Drew Sidora, Brittany Eady, Kelli Ferrell, Angela Oakley and Shamea Morton Mwangi.

“I returned as an official friend, and you guys saw me kind of pop in a little bit last season, but as an official friend, I actually go on the trips and I’m actually with the ladies a lot more,” Cynthia said on Sunday. “I’m a little more in the mix this time. And for me, it’s the perfect situation for me because I miss the girls. I still am connected to so many of the ladies on the show, but my focus still is my acting career, which is going great by the way, but it’s so much fun to stay connected to the show and to the fans.”

Cynthia is also focused on her new “Humble Brag” podcast, which she hosts with former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Crystal Kung Minkoff.

“We are from two different worlds, two different backgrounds, two different franchises, but when we sit down in those chairs, I had no idea how much we actually had in common,” Cynthia told Us. “Our chemistry is undeniable. People assume that just because we’re all a part of Bravo we’re all, like, besties or whatever. Every Bravolebrity is not your person. You connect with who you connect with and it just has to be organic.”

She continued, “One of the things I can say about Crystal is she is scrappy. She has so much to say. You guys are gonna get to see her voice be so much bigger than it was on the show — same for me as well. We were both kind of called the boring ones on our show, the normal ones, I think what’s been so great about the pod is just the fact that you guys get to see us just be us, and get to see more of us, as opposed to the snippets. This is also not a Real Housewives recap show.”

The Real Housewives of Atlanta season 16 premieres in 2025.

With reporting by Mike Vulpo