Phaedra Parks’s Reason for Going on ‘Married to Medicine’ Remains a Mystery to Fans

Longtime Real Housewives of Atlanta watchers know.Phaedra Parks has had an interesting run at Bravo. Several years after being fired from the show due to her accusing Kandi Burruss of attempting to drug and sexually assault Porsha Williams, she found herself back in the network's good graces. In 2023, Phaedra stunned Bravo fans by changing franchises as one of the newest cast members of another long-running, ATL-based Bravo show — Married to Medicine.

On Married to Medicine, Phaedra brought some of the “Southern Belle” charm and shady confessional moments that her fans fell in love with on RHOA. In 2024, her time on M2M put her back on fans' radar with The Traitors and the chance to earn her RHOA peach back.

Phaedra's return to RHOA, plus her ongoing drama with her M2M co-stars, made fans even more confused as to why she joined Married to Medicine in the first place.

If you’re a part of both the M2M and RHOA fandom, you’ve likely seen cast members from each show crossover on the other occasionally. Dr. Jackie Walters, specifically, has been Kandi Burruss and Sanya Richard-Ross’s OBGYN and has appeared on RHOA.

Quad Webb, another one of Married to Medicine’s OGs, has been on RHOA with Phaedra before and filmed a scene in Phaedra’s law office in an earlier season. Since then, Quad and Phaedra have remained close, and the connection drew Phaedra to Married to Medicine.

Before her Married to Medicine debut, Phaedra told BravoTV that the show seemed like a great fit since she’s been friends with Quad, Toya Bush-Harris, and some of her other castmates “for years.” Additionally, Phaedra said that, like several of the ladies, she’s involved with someone who is married to medicine — her doctor boo, “Dr. O.”

“That is also something I had in common with the ladies,” Phaedra said. “They’re married, but I snuggle up to a physician as well.”

While her co-stars are pleased with married life, Phaedra, who divorced her ex-husband and the father of her two children, Apollo Nida, in 2017, said on Married to Medicine that a second marriage wasn’t in her plans. The Ultimate Girls Trip alum also stopped dating Dr. O before her first M2M season.

Whether she’s “dating medicine” or not, Phaedra’s career objectives are also why she joined Married to Medicine. In addition to her many degrees and even more jobs, Phaedra decided to pivot into the holistic healing world, and according to M2M’s press release for the 2023 season, she “is ready to make her medicinal mark with a holistic wellness center."

Through her wellness center, Phaedra plans on adding “Holistic Healer'” to her resume and creating a space that offers reiki therapy, healing crystals, etc.

Although Phaedra had a legitimate excuse for going on Married to Medicine, she didn't mesh well with her new co-stars. During Season 11, Toya Bush-Harris told Phaedra she didn't think the ladies knew enough about her in the two years since she's been on the show. She also became on the ladies' "ick" list when Dr. Heavenly Kimes and Quad Webb accused her of keeping a $47,000 donation for Dr. Jackie's Med Gala. Phaedra quickly cleared up her co-stars' accusation by screenshotting the check and posting it on her Instagram.

While the Southern Belle dismissed the claim that she deliberately stole from Dr. Jackie's charity, the claim came after she stepped away from Married to Medicine mid-season after her co-stars brought her ex-husband and his wife, Sherrien, to the group's couple's trip. Phaedra has said the decision had more to do with her re-joining RHOA amid Kandi announcing her departure in February 2024.

Phaedra returned to film RHOA Season 16, reuniting her with Cynthia Bailey and the frick to her frack, Porsha Williams. Before her return to RHOA, she expressed being relieved to be back on the show. In October 2024, Phaedra claimed she helped make M2M relevant by being on the show. When her co-star, Quad, pushed back and said the show revived her career, Phaedra proved why she will always have a career on reality TV.

"Numbers never lie," she said during her exit interview for Dancing With the Stars in October 2024. "This was the best numbers that they’ve had in the history of the show. And the only thing different was [the inclusion of] myself and Sweat Tea (LaTeasha Lunceford). So, it was either Sweet Tea or…me.”

New episodes of Married to Medicine air on Sundays on Bravo at 10 p.m. EST.