Phaedra Parks Says Her Legacy Goes Beyond Reality TV As She Joins ‘Married To Medicine’: ‘It’s A Different Me’

Phaedra Parks, one of Bravo’s Married to Medicine‘s newest cast members, spilled a little tea about the show’s upcoming season while discussing her desire to leave a footprint that exceeds her fame as a reality TV star.

Many viewers would agree that The Real Housewives of Atlanta alumna is one of the most iconic TV personalities, and once again, she has Bravo fans on the edge of their seats as they anticipate her return to reality TV. The attorney departed RHOA after she was outed by Porsha Williams as the root of false rumors spread about Kandi Burruss in season nine. Since her exit, many RHOA fans have rooted to see Parks return to their television screens. Their wishes were granted when news broke earlier this year that Parks was cast for Married to Medicine.

Parks recently spoke to Blavity’s Shadow and Act Unscripted about her arrival on the beloved show featuring highly respected doctors and wives of physicians. She discussed what intrigued her about joining the cast, what she’s been up to, her love life, and what fans can expect for the tenth season.

The 50-year-old revealed her decision to join Married to Medicine made sense considering she’s been dating a physician for over a year. Plus, she already knows some of the cast and Dr. Gregory “Dr. G” Lunceford from living in Atlanta.

“I knew the majority of them in real life prior to joining and so that made it a different decision because I know them as people, you know, women of integrity. It was an easy decision and they welcomed me in, so it was a great fit for me and them,” Parks told us.

She continued, “I’m a lawyer, but I started dabbling into holistic health, dating a physician, and so that was a factor that was central to my joining because they’re obviously married to physicians or they are physicians so dating a physician was sort of an uncharted territory for me, but because they’re married to physicians, I knew that they could not only help me with that journey but help me with journey in holistic health.”

Married to Medicine wasn’t stressful for her because she enjoyed filming with her new coworkers since she got along with everyone, especially Heavenly Kimes and Dr. Jackie Walters.

“What I do know is that I felt at home with them. I felt like we were like-minded. They were professional women, I’m a professional woman, so I’m respectful of their careers [and] they were respectful of mine. I think when you start off on that footing it changes the dynamic of the relationship,” Parks said.

The mother of two admitted it was important for her to consult her sons, Ayden and Dylan, who were born on TV, before expressing any interest in becoming a cast member.

“Me coming back to television was a family decision because now they’re at an age where it’s a very crucial time, preteen [and] a teenager. When the opportunity presented itself, the three of us had a conversation,” Parks said.

“But had they not wanted me to do it, I wouldn’t have done it because I just know how much these formative years are so important to what they become as young adults,” she added. “I want them to be able to go to school, go to events, and be very confident in who they are and who their parents are.”

On top of fans seeing Parks’ sons at different stages in their lives, they’ll learn about what the Athens native is doing these days as she’s always been one to wear many hats. Her latest business venture in holistic medicine as a certified Reiki Master was inspired by her healing and self-growth journey, which involved reiki following her divorce from Apollo Nida.

“I was introduced to reiki when I was going through my divorce from a wonderful African-American woman, Lisa Washington. She was the first reiki master to perform reiki on me,” she said. “From that moment, the way I felt much better … I was able to center myself. She gave me techniques to practice when I felt [anxious] or I just needed to lift my energy. I knew it was something that I needed to really research more because, of course, western medicine is prescription-based, you know, surgery-based.”

On Married to Medicine, Parks will open up about her romance with her Nigerian boyfriend, “Dr. O,” a pediatric cardiologist, and she confessed it will be a rollercoaster of “a lot of milestones” and full of “ups and downs.”

Fans will also have the opportunity to see Parks conduct some holistic practices on the ladies, which will be a sneak peek of what she plans to offer when she opens a wellness center.

“I’ve always been the type of person who will do things that people wouldn’t dare do from being a lawyer, being in the funeral business, so this is just something else that I was like, ‘Wow, more people need to know about this.’ More people need to understand that it doesn’t always have to be a pill. It can be a flute, it can be a breathing technique, it can be flower blossom serum.”

This led the entrepreneur to chat about her evolution over the last several years as fans will be reintroduced to who she is now, and not what they last knew of her, which is all a part of the legacy she wants to leave.

“I’ve been out of the Bravo full-time space for five and a half, six years,” she said. “If someone hasn’t changed in six years, you better be worried and very concerned because everyone should be reinventing themselves, getting to know themselves better, and hopefully, changing for the better. So, it’s a different me because I’m at a different stage in life.”

The activist continued, “I’m going to leave an incredible legacy and it won’t stop at reality star. It will be incredible for several different reasons, but the biggest one will be [that] she probably did a lot of things and did them very well. Go figure! A lot of people get stuck on, ‘Oh, I gotta be this.’ I’ve been a great lawyer, still a great lawyer, great funeral director, mortician … now I own an outerwear fashion house. Things that I love, I delve into them.”

In regards to what fans can expect to see on this upcoming season of Married to Medicine, the RHOA veteran feels it will be an unpredictable ride and the best one yet.

“There’s going to be a few hiccups that people will definitely be surprised to see and hands down this is going to be the most exciting season. We got a wedding, we got a funeral, and possibly a baby,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be different, but I think this is the shake-up this show needed. You got three new cast members, including myself, and we all bring something different and very new, and so it’s going to spice it up.”

Parks will make her debut on Bravo’s Married to Medicine on Nov. 5 at 9 p.m. ET. Will you be tuning in?