If there is one thing Real Housewives love, it’s a fresh start. The comedy of each new season lies in the ludicrousness. These women had spent the last months talking shit about each other in “New York” (Bravo’s coded word for “at the reunion taping”) and in the blogs (basically, Page Six). Now they have to film a TV show where they are obligated to spend their nights and weekends sipping Prosecco and hanging out, pretending like they aren’t emotionally bruised by the mean things they’ve all been saying about each other.
Healers, shamans, and psychics (oh my!) have all been brought in on various seasons of Real Housewives to cleanse and help rebuild relationships. On Wednesday night’s fantastic premiere of The Real Housewives of Miami, cast member Alexia Nepola defaulted to a more reliable vessel for facilitating a bygones-be-bygones attitude: booze and food.
The season opener climaxed at Alexia’s “Nuevo Horizontes/New Horizons” party, where she hoped her cast mates would be open to repairing their volatile relationships. With the cast mentioning “New York” as a major trauma event, there was clearly going to be a lot to work through.
Alexia and Adriana de Moura would have to move past the rift caused when Adriana compared her foot injury to Alexia’s son’s life-changing car accident.
Alexia and Julia Lemigova have to work through Julia’s staunch defense of Adriana, a conversation that takes on a new light with Julia supporting her wife, Martina Navritalova, as she battles cancer.
Marysol Patton has to be OK with being in the same room as Adriana, who belittled her relationship with her ex.
And Larsa Pippen needs to know why Guerdy Abraira was calling her “fake”—a conversation that quickly becomes irrelevant as viewers learn that Guerdy had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
(We saw Guerdy at BravoCon. She was doing press with Dr. Nicole Martin, and the two of them had the kindest, warmest, most supportive energy of anyone we met over the weekend. More, Guerdy got to announce at BravoCon that she is cancer free, giving us a huge hug as she and Dr. Nicole acknowledged that, when it comes to something like cancer, the experience never truly leaves you; it will always be on your mind.)
It turned out that New Horizons surfaced old habits. Larsa confronted Guerdy. Julia screamed at Marysol over what she viewed as hypocrisy: showing up at the party even though she had said she refused to be in the same room as Adriana. Through it all, Alexia was spiraling because her husband, Todd, was too embarrassed to attend the event because of how much the cast was mocking a video he posted on social media apologizing to Dr. Nicole’s husband over comments from last season.
Suffice it to say, it was a lot to unpack. So who better to talk through the party’s tumultuous twists and turns than the women at the center of drama? While at BravoCon, we got to chat with Alexia and Marysol, and, separately, Adriana and Julia. Here are their takes on everything that went down in the name of New Horizons.
Alexia and Marysol
Alexia: I’m all about intentions, and I feel like everybody’s intentions were good. Even Marysol. Obviously, she's my friend, and she was showing up for me and the other girls. I mean, yes, she had some kind of unrest with Adriana. But she’s the kind of girl that’s going to show up regardless.
Marysol: Hello! Adriana, on the way to your house, was talking crap about you and your husband. And she’s going to walk in your house and drink your liquor and eat your food?
Alexia: Well, it says a lot about her. But what I’m trying to say is, I think that, some way or another, everybody really wanted to be there to just come together and try to move forward. It’s not going to happen in one night. I knew it wasn't going to happen that night. But it was just making the effort. I was setting the tone for everyone. That’s why I didn't want to be involved. And besides that, I really needed to worry about, like, where’s my husband?! I didn’t stick up for [Marysol], apparently. But I knew my friend can handle it.
Marysol: Your friend was fine.
When it comes to the Julia confrontation, what was going through your mind?
Marysol: I was like, are we really going to do this? I kept giggling at her. And then she did sob. I guess because I kept laughing, she kept on going and going, and then finally I snapped. But they didn’t show all that, the going and going and the laughing at her, telling her she’s ridiculous. And then she said “crawl,” and I'm like, a Patton never crawls!
Julia and Adriana
Adriana: I think we got that party started. Julia is the one who got that party started.
Julia: I spoke my truth. I was not going to be quiet anymore, especially after I lived with Martina and the cancer and her survival. Do you think after seeing my wife, my champion beating cancer that I would be the same Julia, sitting back and hoping that things would be OK? No, it would not be OK, unless you take things in your hands and speak out. I speak out loud and proud, and nobody will ever stop me from doing that anymore.
Adriana, how did you feel about seeing Julia and Marysol’s fight happen?
Adriana: Well, I was surprised, because Julia usually is not the one to do confrontation. She usually uses her charm more than her confrontational style. But I was like, OK! If you look back at the reunion, Marysol and Alexia were coming at me bigtime. I literally felt like I was being bullied, because my words were taken out of context. They were focusing on two words out of a long sentence, forgetting about the rest, and just pounding on me. Julia, as my best friend, saw that happen. She didn’t react at the time because she was dealing with bigger things, like Martina’s cancer.
Julia: Martina was getting her radiation treatment while we were filming the reunion. So my mind was not with Marysol. I kind of froze.
Adriana: But then later she defrosted.
Julia: I did, baby.
Adriana: She gave me hot fuego!
