Real Housewives of Potomac” star Candiace Dillard says she’s “embarrassed” that her fight with Monique Samuels turned physical.
During a virtual appearance on “The Wendy Williams Show” on Monday, the reality star opened up about the explosive fight that went down between her and Monique on Sunday night’s episode of “RHOP,” which appeared to show her get physically attacked by Monique.
“This is never somewhere that I saw myself being at any time. I’m not a fighter. I don’t fight,” began Candiace, 33. “It’s not what I do and having gone through this and having dealt with literally the trauma of it. It’s not what I see my legacy being. I don’t want this to be representative of me or really in 2020, of Black women at all.”
“So the fact that this happened, it’s embarrassing. I’m embarrassed,” she continued. “I’m embarrassed for all of us. We are women. We are entrepreneurs, we are wives, we are mothers. We don’t do things like this. The fact that this took place, it’s embarrassing for me.”
When Wendy asked Candiace if she could explain what the overall “issue” is between her and Monique, Candiace said she’s still not really sure what led to the fight, even a year later.
“Wendy, we are in the same boat,” she told the daytime host. “We are almost a year removed from the incident and I’m still confused. I still don’t know what exactly I did to this person that would cause her to think that –“
Wendy then interrupted Candiace and said she accused Monique of “having an affair behind her husband’s back.”
Candiace responded by saying it was all “a plot.”
“Certain individuals are very good at what’s called the spin,” she said. “If [Monique] had asked me, which she never had a conversation with me about these rumors that she heard, she would have gotten clarity on the fact that I was never part of a spin, a spreading, a plot that was never anything that I was a part of.”
“The fact that she is now using that to justify what she did… it’s poppycock,” Candiace added. “If you pay attention to the season, she never actually brings up these rumors and this plotting during the season. It only comes out and becomes an issue after we have wrapped filming because she was looking for any reason to justify physically attacking another Black woman on national television. And it’s embarrassing.”
As for Karen Huger, Candiace said viewers will see how her co-star tries to play both sides — hers and Monique’s — saying she “humps the fence.” However, after Wendy pointed out that Karen seemed to “stick with Monique a little bit more,” Candiace didn’t disagree.
“I’m not mad at Karen,” she explained. “I’m waiting in the wings for Karen to find her sense. You’ll see it kind of play out later in the season. She really sort of straddles the fence and sort of humps the fence the entire season in a situation that is very clear cut. You can’t ride the fence in a situation where you have someone who grabs me by the hair, punches me in the head and then shows no remorse for it.”
Candiace added that the incident alone is not what’s caused her “trauma,” but rather the “barrage of lies” she claims Monique has been spreading.
“It’s not even really that the fight happened, the fight is not the trauma,” Candiace told Wendy. “The trauma is — and you’ll see this play out later — is the way that she lies, the barrage of lies and leaking of lies to the press, all of which are skewed in her favor, which is how we knew she was the one leaking things to the press.”
“That is what has caused, for me, such mental strife,” she continued. “It’s been really hard for me to have to sit back — because I’m contractually obligated to do so — and not speak on what has happened, while she uses peons and lackeys and random people to spread lies that six cameras caught.”
Candiace concluded, “This [incident] really takes over the majority of the season and really changes the dynamic of the entire group. And for me, I feel like it’s important to say that, I’m still not okay.”
The “RHOP” star also confirmed to Wendy that she pressed charges against Monique and explained the meaning behind those charges.
“Me pressing charges…it wasn’t for TV,” Candiace clarified. “That was me watching this person, who physically attacked me, then show no remorse and double down on her lies and me saying to myself, ‘You have embarrassed Black women as a whole with your horrible behavior and I can’t allow that to be the case.'”
Sunday night’s episode of “RHOP” kicked off with the fight between Candiace and Monique, which started as a verbal altercation, before getting physical.
While at a wine tasting event, Candiace asked Monique, “You gone drag me?” to which Monique responded, “Do you want me to?” As shown in the episode, Monique then appeared to grab Candiace by the hair and dragged her across the table.
After producers and the other Housewives managed to separate the two, Monique, whose lip was bleeding, told a producer that Candiace “asked for it.”
“You keep talking. You literally want someone to hit you, so that’s what happened,” she said.
Later, Candiace and Monique both called their husbands on the ride home and reflected on the fight.
“I’m just embarrassed. This is crazy. Why are you coming at me so hard? I have been your friend — your real friend,” Candiace said to her husband, Chris Bassett.
“I’ll talk shit all day, but I’m not putting my hands on people,” she added. “There’s enough shit about Black women fighting and scrapping. I don’t want to look like a f–king ghetto ass hood-rat.”
Similarly, Monique told her husband, Chris Samuels, what had happened.
“Hey baby, I just got into a fight with Candiace,” she explained. “The last thing I remember is me flipping her hair and next thing I know, a glass flew and I grabbed her weave and was just bashing her head with my fist. I honestly blacked out after that.”
