‘RHOA’ Recap: Marlo Hampton Spirals After Drew Mentions The Shooting At Kandi’s Restaurant
A special moment in Drew Sidora’s life turned sour during the May 21 episode of ‘RHOA’, when she asked Kandi Burruss about a recent shooting at her restaurant, Blaze.
The May 21 episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta was supposed to be a joyous one for Drew Sidora, but as per usual, any time the cast gets together, drama always follows. But before we get to that, let’s start from the beginning. This week’s episode opened with Sheree Whitfield inviting Marlo Hampton and Sanya Richards-Ross over for some brunch just days after BravoCon so they could discuss what happened there. First, they talked about Kandi Burruss‘ mom shading Todd Tucker. Then, they wondered why Drew went after Sanya on stage during the cast’s panel after they agreed to move forward so they could try to rebuild their friendship. And outside of BravCon, they talked about how the group needs to stop targeting Sheree’s new boyfriend Martell Holt. Sheree said he’s a totally different person to her than what people see on his show, Love & Marriage: Huntsville, and she’s happy with him, so she’d really like people to support their new relationship.
#RHOA Sneak Peek: Monyetta & Marlo get into it, & Drew questions Kandi on the blaze incident! 🍑 pic.twitter.com/BAClXo1jP8
— jay (@JaysRealityBlog) May 16, 2023
Later, Kandi sat down with Monyetta Shaw and DonJuan to also talk about her mom throwing shade at Todd, and they couldn’t believe that after all these years, Mama Joyce was still trying to cause drama in Kandi’s marriage. In case you missed it, Mama Joyce was asked who she’d set her daughter up with if given the chance, and she said she would pick someone who “had a decent job”, which was an obvious dig at Todd. Kandi wasn’t happy about it and she hasn’t talked to her mom since then.
In the midst of all that, Real Housewives of Potomac‘s Candiace Dillard-Bassett called Drew to invite her to perform with her at her next concert. Candiace was performing in Atlanta and had initially asked RHOA alum Shamari DeVoe, but Shamari couldn’t do it, so Kandi told Candiace that Drew might be into doing it. Drew was ecstatic — especially because she’s been wanting to relaunch her stalled music career.
To celebrate, Drew invited all of her co-stars to go watch her sing with Candiace, and they were happy to show their support. Even Sanya went! Sheree, who wasn’t “feeling well”, was the only one who didn’t go, but maybe more of the ladies should have pretended they were also ill because Drew only went out on stage for about 45 seconds.
In the middle of Candiace’s set, she invited Drew out on stage, and Drew sang the same lyrics three to four times to show her range, but she didn’t show much. To be honest, the ladies weren’t too impressed and later told Drew that they wish they could have heard more from her. But even so, they still celebrated with her backstage and applauded her efforts. Drew was also happy to see Sanya there, so they both agreed to put their feud and BravoCon behind them so they could finally — and truly — move forward.
The #RHOA taglines are here! pic.twitter.com/dldwZiq4nO
— Queens of Bravo (@queensofbravo) May 18, 2023
Unfortunately, when Drew asked Kandi about a recent shooting at her restaurant, Blaze, everything went awry. Drew asked Kandi how she was doing, but she didn’t actually say the word “shooting” — Marlo played dumb and asked what happened, and Drew said there was “an incident”. Marlo then asked, “Oh, the shooting?”, but Kandi said she couldn’t talk about it because it was a private legal matter.
That upset Marlo — she feels as though Kandi is never pressured to talk about real-life issues on camera because producers are “afraid of her”. Because of it, Marlo got up and threatened to leave, but Kandi then asked her if she wanted to talk about that time she assaulted someone 23 years ago. Marlo thought the incidents weren’t comparable, and she still feels there’s a double standard when it comes to Kandi. But before they could argue any further, Drew changed the subject by saying it was supposed to be a “night of love”. Courtney Rhodes told Drew that she was “amazing” on stage, and everyone joined in on celebrating Drew again. But “30 minutes after production wrapped”, Drew and Marlo were hashing things out, so a producer picked up a camera again.
Marlo didn’t understand why Drew refused to say the word “shooting” on camera. She felt as thought Drew was catering to Kandi by not really talking about it on camera. Marlo asked Drew why she didn’t say the word, and Drew said everyone already knew about it because it’s on the news, so she didn’t think she needed to say more than “the incident at Blaze”. Drew also said she didn’t want to make a moment of it because she’s known people who’ve been killed by gun violence, and she didn’t want to trigger anyone. But apparently, it triggered Marlo for a number of reasons.
Marlo revealed that her nephew used to work for Kandi and he was killed by gun violence. After her nephew died in 2020, Marlo allegedly texted Kandi to talk about it, but Kandi didn’t seem to care. Then, when Marlo talked to Kandi about it in person the next day, “she pretended like she had no idea what I was talking about.” So Marlo’s been mad at Kandi for a long time about her not wanting to talk about things on camera, and this week, she finally snapped. Unfortunately, it was Drew — not Kandi — on the receiving end of Marlo’s anger. After Drew told Marlo that she was leaving and didn’t understand why she was so upset, Marlo stood up, yelled “my nephew is dead” in her face, and stormed off. Drew couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Want more drama? New episodes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta air Sundays at 8pm on Bravo.