Cynthia Bailey, 52, is trying to save her friendship with NeNe Leakes, 51, in the aftermath of the Season 11 finale of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which aired on March 31. Viewers finally learned why NeNe unfollowed Cynthia on Instagram and called her “sneaky and underhanded” earlier in March, as the model appeared to secretly coordinate with co-star Kandi Burruss, 42, to bring former RHOA star Kenya Moore, 48, to Cynthia’s launch event for her new peach bellini drink in the finale (although they denied this). “One of the biggest arguments during the RHOA reunion was between NeNe and Cynthia. There were behind-the-scenes clips that reveal Cynthia plotting with Kandi behind NeNe’s back,” a source EXCLUSIVELY tells HollywoodLife. Now that the finale has aired, “Cynthia is trying to do damage control,” our source says.
Cynthia’s blaming this mess on her mic, our source claims: “Cynthia [was] unaware her mic [was] on and she [was] being filmed. Cynthia was trying to cover up lying to Nene about inviting someone she didn’t like to an event.” Our source is referring to a conversation recorded off-screen between the model and Kandi in the finale, during which Cynthia told her co-star, “I just want to make sure we was on the same page, setting up how Kenya got here.” To that, the former Xscape member frantically replied, “I’m mic’d, I’m mic’d, I’m mic’d, I’m mic’d.”
“When NeNe saw the clip she was really hurt that Cynthia would lie to her, and then even worse, go behind her back and try to cover up what she did,” our source continues. “NeNe and Cynthia have been really close friends for years, and NeNe couldn’t believe Cynthia would do something like that. She felt very betrayed.” While the conversation between Kandi and Cynthia supposedly didn’t happen at the wine cooler event, according to Cynthia herself, she was seen whispering to boyfriend Mike Hill at the party. “I’m supposed to act like I didn’t know Kenya was coming,” Cynthia told Mike, according to the Bravo editors’ captioning.
We saw Cynthia attempt to do the aforementioned “damage control” in a video of Kandi’s YouTube series, Speak On It, uploaded on March 31. Cynthia denied that she and Kandi conspired to lie to NeNe, claiming that their conversation happened after the party. Cynthia was supposedly prepping Kandi to admit that the singer was responsible for Kenya’s party appearance. Kandi claimed in the YouTube video that Kenya originally turned down Cynthia’s party invite, but went on to encourage her former RHOA co-star to show up anyways (unbeknownst to Cynthia, supposedly). “I was the one who talked her into it. But I did not get a confirmed answer until I pulled up at the party,” Kandi confessed.