Candiace Dillard’s Relationship with ‘Demon’ RHOP Co-star Gizelle Bryant

Candiace Dillard shares where she stands with Real Housewives of Potomac co-star Gizelle Bryant after filming season 3 of RHUGT.

The Bravolebs filmed season 3 of RHUGT after enduring a difficult and drama filled season of RHOP months prior that left their once strong friendship shattered to pieces.

It’s safe to say Canidace wasn’t excited going into filming season 3 of RHUGT with Gizelle. In fact, the singer says it she went to hell and back while filming the Real Housewives spinoff show last summer.

“I’m around all these new girls. The one girl that I know really well is a demon, so, like, who are my friends? I felt just alone,” Candiace teases on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast, noting that she had “bad anxiety” about traveling across the world to Phuket, Thailand.

The 37-year-old admitted that she was nervous about opening up to her fellow RHUGT co-stars, which included Alexia Nepola, Marysol Patton, Heather Gay, Whitney Rose, Leah McSweeney, and Porsha Williams, about her issues with Gizelle.

“It didn’t feel appropriate to talk about in front of strangers, so I was just in my room,” the singer explains. “My mom [Dorothy Dillard] was checking in on me every morning, like, ‘How are you doing? It’s gonna be fine, you’re gonna be great.’” 

Candiace was thankful she had her mom to confide in because she didn’t think Gizelle would be able to be there for her during her time of distress.

“You can’t expect humanity from just a rock,” she adds. “Rocks don’t have feelings.”

Eventually, Candiace was able to bond with a majority of the RHUGT ladies and build particularly close friendship with Real Housewives of New York alum Leah McSweeney.

In the early days of the trip Candiace was dealing with feelings of isolation and was also still recovering from a heated fight with her husband Chris Bassett that happened just hours before she left for Thailand.

“I was still dealing with a lot of feelings about Chris and I not speaking and having literally gotten into a huge argument five minutes before going to get in my car and go to the airport and not being able to resolve it,” she admits.

She notes that she is now in a “great place” with Chris. The RHOP couple wed in 2018, with Candiace adding that she is still “obsessed” with her husband.

“Then there are things happening in my family that I can’t talk about that were affecting me, too,” she teases. “And then hearing everybody else tell their personal stories and then talk about their families and what they had gone through, it was just a wave of emotion washing over me.”

Notably, Chris and Candiace had a very difficult season of RHOP but the Housewife insists she’s let go of any anger felt while filming the RHOP season 7 reunion.

At the reunion, the RHOP couple confronted Gizelle amid her claims that Chris made her “completely uncomfortable” during a one on one conversation after the RHOP season 6 reunion.

Both denied Gizelle’s claims with Candiace in particularly going to bat to support her husband’s character.

“Both Chris and I … left the reunion feeling like we left everything on the couches. And I was really proud of Chris because I think he emoted well and I was happy that he finally got to speak on the stage where everybody’s eyes and ears are open,” she explains. “And we left everything there.”

RHOP is expected to return for season 8 in late 2023 or early 2024.

Season 3 of RHUGT is currently airing on Peacock. New episodes drop every Thursday.

Thoughts on this all? Are you enjoying season 3 of RHUGT so far? Sound off below!