Cynthia Bailey is speaking candidly about Jill Zarin’s Super Bowl controversy, and she’s not sugarcoating how it made her feel.
On a recent episode of their podcast Humble Brag, Cynthia and Crystal Kung Minkoff addressed Jill’s now-infamous rant about Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, which ultimately led to Jill being dropped from E!’s upcoming RHONY reunion-style series The Golden Life.
For context: Jill posted a video criticizing the halftime show, complaining it was in Spanish and claiming there were “no white people” in the performance. The backlash was immediate. The video was deleted, but the fallout continued, and Blink49 Studios announced they would no longer move forward with her involvement in the show, citing company values.
Cynthia made it clear this was difficult to talk about because of her personal history with Jill.
“You know it’s not a secret that I am friends with Jill Zarin,” Cynthia said. “I’ve known Jill for years, from the time I started my Housewives journey. She was one of the first people to reach out to me, and we’ve been friends for a long time. She’s always been very supportive. I know her parents. I know Ally. I know the whole thing. We are friends.”
But despite that friendship, Cynthia didn’t defend the comments.
“So with that said, I don’t want to make this about us, because at the end of the day it’s not about us,” she continued. “I think for me, it was really hard to watch someone that I care about say such hurtful, insensitive, ignorant — is the word that comes to mind, for sure.”
Crystal then asked if Cynthia had reached out to Jill privately.
“I have not,” Cynthia admitted.
While Jill has said she made a mistake and deleted the video, the controversy continues to ripple through the Bravo universe — and now even her friends are publicly acknowledging the damage.
