Now that Phaedra Parks has signed on to join the cast of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, the successful attorney and producer of Tiny & Toya is coming to her husband’s defense. In the Real Housewives of Atlanta season 3 trailer it’s mentioned that Phaedra’s a lawyer, but her husband has a criminal past.

Phaedra doesn’t like the gossip, so she has issued a statement. Excerpts:

• My husband was convicted of a white-collar crime. It was racketeering. He comes up for an appeal and we just hope that works out positively. But he wasn’t guilty of harming any person or anybody and unfortunately that’s what happened. I married my husband because I loved him and he loved me and I think that’s the foundation of any good relationship. I didn’t marry him because of his past or because of his future. I married him because I respected him and I – realized everyone should realize that people make mistakes.

Translation: I was dickmatized, and when you’re dickmatized, you don’t question it, you just do whatever it takes to keep the man with the magic wand, heh.

• That’s what the United States was founded on – people having a second chance. And so as a black woman, unfortunately, in our community more than anything a lot of times Black men have had legal problems. And every Black woman who says that Black men with legal problems cannot be considered as a mate, then we help with the genocide of our own community. 

I’m not feeling this portion of her statement. The United States was founded on stealing from Native Americans, not to mention commiting genocide against Native American tribes and killing off hundreds of millions of Africans in the slave trade and slavery. If a black woman chooses not to be with an ex-con, it doesn’t mean she’s helping the genocide of her own community and it’s sad that Phaedra is being overly dramatic about the current state of black America just because she couldn’t find a man without a record.

• So at the end of the day I have to go home to him and so whomever you marry has to be your personal choice. I married him because I love him, not because everyone else loves him.

•  People are always gonna talk. If I married a White man it would be the same thing like, “Oh, she married a White man.” But no matter who you marry, someone is gonna be able to throw rocks but every body throwing rocks – they probably live in a glass house themselves so I don’t let that bother me.

There’s nothing in Phaedra’s statement that says “lawyer,” it’s a poorly worded essay filled with cliches: I married my husband because I loved him, people make mistakes, I didn’t marry him because everyone else loves him, people are always going to talk, people who throw rocks probably live in a glass house themselves? I don’t want this woman representing me if I’m dealing with a lawsuit. However, I agree that you can’t always get what you want, the way that you want it. Now if Apollo gets sent to prison again, that’s a whole other story, but Phaedra wants to be with him, so she has to deal with whatever comes their way. I’m hoping that things will work out well for her.