A strategic plan. Monique Samuels is claiming that some of her The Real Housewives of Potomac costars tried to get her fired from the Bravo show following her physical altercation with Candiace Dillard.
“They met off camera and had a little meeting and I think that it was very strategic, what they decided to do,” Samuels tells Us Weekly. “They looked at this as an opportunity to possibly get me off the show. They thought they had that type of power to get me fired. So that was very strategic.”
The “Not For Lazy Moms” podcast host, 36, said there are “so many layers” as to why the fight went down, but feels that Dillard, 33, “wants to play the victim right now.”
“Her and her attorney have literally gone on media campaigns with this whole incident. She’s called me out of my name. She has said that I’m mentally unstable. She has said that I’m unfit to be a mother and parent,” the reality star tells Us. “That’s a whole lot coming from someone who was supposed to be a friend. So that just seems to me that you were never a friend.”
The two have not spoken since their 2019 fight, which resulted in a summons being issued to Samuels for a charge of second-degree assault. Samuels filed a counterclaim against Dillard, 33, for a charge of second-degree assault. In December 2019, both charges were dismissed.
“She did enough damage to get herself fired,” Dillard told Us in a statement. “I was never involved in the spreading of rumors or plotting that her former friends came up with and she knows that. It’s why she never brought it up to me.”
“This all could have been avoided if she had kept her hands to herself, or at the very least, owned that she lost control,” Dillard added. “Instead, she chose to tell anyone who would listen that I provoked her by throwing a glass. We’ve all now seen the footage.”
The “Drag Queens” singer did say she is looking forward to getting closure at the upcoming reunion, but chances for a reconciliation are very slim.
“I am one to never say never,” she tells Us. “But I’m never going to be friends with her again.”
The Real Housewives of Potomac airs on Bravo Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.