Interview with Kenya Moore on The Real Housewives of Atlanta – Exclusive

Since joining the cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta in season five, Kenya Moore has made the highly rated Bravo show more dramatic, controversial, and – dare we say it – Gone with the Wind fabulous. We chatted with Kenya about what to expect from the seventh season of RHoA as well as her upcoming appearance on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice.

Check out our exclusive interview with Kenya Moore below:

At the end of the last season, you and your “African prince” were planning to undergo in vitro fertilization. Do we see any of that in the upcoming season? What happened with that?

Kenya Moore: We definitely see me continuing on with the baby-making process, and that’s really all I’m at liberty to tell you right now. You have to watch the season. I think it’s really important, you know, a woman of my age and just being single and going through the things that I’m going through, I definitely decided to share my journey with the viewers. It’s very personal to me and so for me it was more important for me to share it because I know that a lot of women are in a similar situation as myself.

That actually ties really well into another question I had. Over the years, you’ve obviously been accustomed to having cameras around as part of your professional life, but is it weird having them follow you around in your daily life and is it hard to have them there during really personal moments?

I’m not accustomed to having people film me at home, no, but they don’t film us 24 hours, seven days a week. It’s not as invasive as you may think that it is, but it definitely is different because you are sharing personal moments and you are opening yourself up to a lot of criticism. You know, sometimes the viewers can be really sympathetic, and then sometimes they can just be really mean.

Is it crazy to have someone from some random place weighing in on your life? I know Andy Cohen reads out some of the feedback at the reunions – how does that feel?

You know, I take it with a grain of salt. I think that people know that I don’t really listen to a lot of other people and their opinions of me. I live my life as I see fit and I don’t really give in to the… I don’t fall into the same traps as maybe some of the girls have done, I just, you know, I’m just one of those people. I don’t really care about what people think.

Speaking of what people think of you, at the reunion, Apollo told you that he was your storyline and he sustained your career. How much involvement do you have with him in the next season and do you think that’s true at all?

Well, clearly what Apollo said was a joke because I had a lot of stories and only a small portion of it was about Apollo. I think it was the other way around. Clearly they weren’t following Apollo and his storyline about anything else other than me, so that’s just a delusional person speaking. You’ll see some revelations occur during this season pretty early on, and I think the viewers will be shocked about what they learn about Apollo and myself.

You’re also going to be appearing on Celebrity Apprentice [which has already been filmed but is yet to air]. Who did you most enjoy working with?

I liked Ian [Ziering] a lot. Terrell Owens, Gilbert Gottfried was incredible, Geraldo was amazing, Leeza Gibbons was cool. I really enjoyed most of the people on the show, I actually did. Clearly, you know, we were there playing a game and we were there to work, and you have to come with your game face on.

Were you nervous at all?

I think I was nervous the first time I was in the boardroom because, you know, I’m sitting across from Donald Trump and I’ve seen horrible things happen in the boardroom. I definitely was nervous because I didn’t know how I was going to be received or I didn’t know if someone was going to turn on me at the drop of a dime, so those were always difficult situations.

Back to RHoA – the new season is about to start. Can you describe everything that happens in one word?

Oooh… dirty. You weren’t ready for that one, huh?

In terms of your co-stars, you’ve had some friction with basically everyone at one point or another. Who would be your go-to person if you just want to chill and not have any drama?

Oh, Cynthia, for sure. I’ve just really grown to love Cynthia. She’s a great person, a great human being and she’s a great role model for me and for young women everywhere, women everywhere. I think she’s like a superhero. I can’t say enough amazing things about Cynthia.

Obviously we’ve seen a lot of personal moments on RHoA, especially in the last season when you were starting off with the baby journey and with Velvet’s funeral – do you ever watch that stuff back or do you prefer to leave it in the past so you don’t have to relive it?

For me, I couldn’t watch – it was just too raw and I hadn’t discussed it with anyone, especially Velvet’s passing. I still haven’t watched those episodes. I did not watch the reunion all the way through. I just can’t do it. It’s just too painful. Yes, you relive the moment, even watching the season back, you just end up reliving the moment over and over again and I just wasn’t willing to do that.

If you know that there isn’t going to be anything crazy coming up in an episode involving you, will you watch it?

Oh, I always watch the episodes, I just couldn’t watch the reunion and I couldn’t watch Velvet – that happened in the last episode of last season. But I watch every episode. Yeah, I have to watch every episode because I need to know what these crazy women are saying about me.

I’ve always wondered, after the episode, do you get – or also do you send – a bunch of texts being like “Bitch, why did you say that about me?”?

Now I don’t. I did my first season, like, “Really, you had to go there?”

Is there a lot of that going on generally among the cast or do you think people, like you, are just kind of over it?

I think that people have the same reaction, because the thing that viewers may or may not get about our show: We do not know what’s being said about us until we see it on the show. We only get the episodes maybe one or two days before you see them and so therefore, when they’re in their personal interviews and things like that, we don’t know what they’re saying about us. We don’t know what’s being said in other scenes. The producers don’t tell us any of that, so it’s a shock to us when we see things occur.

Do you ever address that off-screen or do you wait until the reunion?

I think at that point if it’s someone you’re not working with anymore on the day-to-day filming, you address it at the reunion.

How often do you see the other women when you’re not shooting?

The ones that are my friends, I see them all the time.

That’s good. That makes me happy.

Yeah, like, I’m here hanging out with Cynthia right now in L.A., and Demetria [McKinney], we hang out, we go to dinners, we’re friends. We’re really friends. The other ones, if you’re not really friends with them, you don’t have a reason to go out of your way to hang out with them.

What are you most excited for, either in your particular storyline or something more general, that’s coming up in this season?

I’m really most excited about the launch of my haircare line, Moore Hair. It’s a luxury haircare line and we are going to be making an announcement soon that’s really big. Basically we teamed up with a huge retail outlet, so they’re going to be carrying my haircare line, and then I’m producing a scripted pilot for myself called Life Twirls On.

That’s awesome.

I know. So that’s gonna be shown during the season as well.

It sounds like a lot of cool things are coming up for you.

I know, I’m actually really excited and I’m exhausted. I normally have so much energy and I’m just exhausted at this point, but it’s a good exhausted. It’s always better to be busy than not to be busy.

Anything else you want to say about the show or tease about the upcoming episode this weekend?

You know, I haven’t seen it. We haven’t seen it yet. So I think it’s going to be interesting and it’s going to be a great season for me, and I think the fans will really see me for who I am, which is a girls’ girl, someone who’s just very supportive of other women and, you know, I’m still a firecracker but I’m only going to ignite when lit.

Keep up with Kenya Moore on Twitter (@KenyaMoore) and tune in to the premiere of the seventh season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta this Sunday, Nov. 9, at 8/7c on Bravo.