'The Real Housewives of Atlanta' star Phaedra Parks: I really didn't have any idea Apollo Nida was guilty

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks says she believed her estranged husband Apollo Nida was innocent until she was slapped with the truth of his guilty plea.


Nida, 35, turned himself in to jail on September 11 in Lexington, KY, to begin his eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to charges of bank fraud and identity theft in May.

Parks, a 41-year-old attorney who has two young sons with Nida, appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday and expressed how she "really didn't" have any idea Nida was engaging in fraudulent activity during their marriage.

"I work. I just got my fifth college degree, and so, I am pretty much an overachiever. I have two very small children. I just stopped breastfeeding three months ago. So, I didn't have any idea that all of this was going on until he called me [in January] and said, 'Hey, I've been arrested and I'm having this problem, but it's not true,'" Parks, who was not present at Nida's July sentencing hearing, told DeGeneres.

"And so, I went out of my way to get him the best attorneys, the best investigators, and to do everything I could. I'm an attorney myself, and so I wanted him to have the best so that we could fight this together, but obviously it did not turn out like that."


Nida reportedly laundered over $2.3 million in the last four years by creating fake companies to steal people's identities in order to open fraudulent bank accounts in their names and deposit stolen money.

Parks admitted, "I have made that decision" to divorce Nida. Her representative Steve Honig also recently told People that Parks has "retained an attorney with the intent of amicably ending her marriage."

Nida was previously imprisoned from 2004 to 2009 for breaking federal racketeering laws related to auto-title fraud. Parks met and began dating him when he was on parole, but she insisted to the talk show host that she didn't see his past as a red flag.

"Well, to be honest, he had been to prison, but he was a changed person. So, the person I married, I thought he had changed," the reality TV star noted, adding that it's "extremely hard" knowing she's going to have to raise their two children alone.

"My heart aches for my two sons because they are the heart and soul of who I am. That's the best thing we ever did together. We have great kids, and I never wanted to do anything to diminish his character in public. But we've had some times where he's done things that weren't so cool, weren't so nice."


As far as accusations go that Parks had cheated on Nida, she didn't hesitate to shoot them down.

"I think it's totally absurd to think that I cheated. They're saying that I had an affair with a man from Africa named Chocolate. Now, everybody knows that I do love a Snickers bar every once in a while, but it's definitely not a man from Africa that I've ever had an affair with. I mean, it's just absurd," Parks told DeGeneres.

"I think sometimes when people are hurting, they do things to hurt other people. There's been a lot of lashing out from Apollo because I think he's in a place -- a very, you know, angry place -- and I think you hurt the people who are closest to you sometimes, and it's unfortunate. But, you know, it's ridiculous."

Parks acknowledged she doesn't even know a man named Chocolate to begin with.

"I don't," she claimed. "I do know Mr. Goodbar though."


Parks married Nida the same year he was released from jail. The pair also began appearing on Bravo's The Real Housewives of Atlanta together in 2009. They welcomed their first child, Ayden, in 2010. Parks then gave birth to their second kid, Dylan, in May 2013.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta will return for a seventh season early next month.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski