'Real Housewives of Dallas' star D'Andra Simmons on her relationship with Mamma Dee: 'We don't fight anymore'
Thanks to COVID-19, we might not be able to catch up on Season 5 of 'Real Housewives of Dallas' anytime soon, but lovely housewife D'Andra Simmons sat down with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) for an exclusive interview to update us about her company, current relationship with Mamma Dee and teased us about the new housewives.
When D'Andra joined the cast of 'RHOD' during Season 2, we saw the housewife and her mother Mamma Dee lock horns over their business empire.
While Mamma Dee refused to give up control of the family business which she built from the ground-up, D'Andra was keen on taking it over and running it herself. D'Andra eventually won the battle only to find that the company was running under heavy losses.
The housewife had to quickly learn the ropes of the trade and we saw her make some major decisions to keep her company afloat in the previous season. So, when we asked the housewife how her company Ultimate Living was doing, she revealed it was doing great until the pandemic which brought small-businesses to a stand-still.
She said, "It was going great. And then all of a sudden, of course, you know, COVID-19 hit and things just came to a screeching halt because. We were really doing a grassroots effort with my business."
She added, "I've been doing some virtual things a lot of social media, Facebook lives, Instagram lives to just try to educate people about the products. And that has helped the business. It's not as good as an in-person trunk show, of course, but it has sustained it through this difficult time."
D'Andra's troubled relationship with Mamma Dee was a major plotline for the housewife for the past two seasons. Season 4 ended with the brunette housewife working on improving her relationship with mother.
When we asked D'Andra about her current relationship with her mother, she replied, "Oh, well, she and I, you know, we go, we have our ups and downs. I mean, she's pretty feisty. We have a good relationship. My mother and I've always had fights and then we'd get back together. We'd make up."
"But really, now that she's divorced from the business, pretty much we don't fight anymore. She is a big personality. She's funny. She has a lot of great qualities. I think now that I moved on from the business situation while being in partnership with her, we have a much better relationship."
Given how much Mamma Dee was hesitant about handing over the business to D'Andra, we were curious to know if Mamma Dee was happy with the way her daughter was operating the business.
D'Andra revealed that when she asked her mother the same question, Mamma Dee reportedly said she was very happy with how D’Andra was running the business.
When asked if she could tease us about the upcoming season of 'RHOD', the housewife explained that the filming didn't begin due to the pandemic and that it would resume once the social distancing rules are relaxed or lifted.
However, she did hint at a new cast member joining them. She said, "We have some new people this year and I'm really excited about that one. One of them is a good friend of mine, so I'm really happy about that. And I think she'll be very good for the show. She's very smart and just a real fireball."
We all have our favorite housewives on the franchise, so we asked D'Andra who hers was. "Bethenny Frankel," revealed the housewife. She added Margaret Josephs and Dorinda Medley to the list.
She reveals that she is drawn to the housewives who run their own businesses as she finds them inspiring. We then asked her if she wanted to be on any other 'Real Housewives' shows from the franchise.
The Dallas housewife immediately said she'll pick 'Real Housewives of New York'.
She explained, "I'm a New York girl. I lived there for several years. In New York, nobody's going to care if I'm showing my Spanx or I'm falling over a bush when I've had too much tequila. In the South, they throw a big fit about that. And New York housewives wouldn't care."