Monique Samuels Says She Felt Instant Shade from the Moment She Met Gizelle Bryant

BravoTV.com:

The Real Housewives of Potomac didn't waste any time in initiating newbie Monique Samuels into the crew during that recent high tea full of high drama. But this rookie held her own, even throwing in her two cents on the little tiff that transpired between Karen Huger, Robyn Dixon, and Gizelle Bryant. 

So watch out, RHOP vets, because Monique has never been one to hold back, and she's not about to start now. "I'm pretty straightforward. I'm from Jersey, just like my girl Charrisse [Jackson Jordan]. We come with mouths and sass. And I'm pretty direct, and I'm not afraid to be confrontational, so I think that might have threw them for a loop a little bit. I know in the past, anytime there's a newbie, usually the newbie is a little bit quiet, but I just don't know how to be quiet," Monique told The Daily Dish prior to the episode airing. "I was born and raised in an environment where you speak your mind. Even with adults, you speak your mind, but you do it respectfully. As a child, that's what we were always told. And my dad always made sure that we were able to express ourselves. So that's just how I am since I was little. I don't know any other way to be." 

Monique said she feels right at home in front of the cameras, too. "It just was a natural flow, even with the cameras and everything else, everyting was just so natural. I think I was born to do this," Monique said of her first season of RHOP. "There was a lot of ups and downs, like being on a roller coaster, being among such dynamic women. Any time you put six strong-minded women in the same room, you're bound to have something happen or some words being mistaken or taken the wrong way."

And it seems as though Monique has already made an enemy out of Gizelle, since the vet didn't seem quite ready to welcome the newbie into the group at the tea. "We immediately bumped heads. And it's funny because I actually thought I would have had more of a connection with her because I'm so close with the first lady of my church, and I know Gizelle's a former first lady. But there are just two different types of first ladies, I guess," Monique said with a laugh. "So I just felt like maybe she's a little threatened or a little intimidated or just flat-out jealous of me and my situation. And she's judging a book by its cover. She's assuming that she knows everything about me, and she knows nothing. She just probably made the same assumption that a lot of people make when they meet a person married to a successful athlete and not too bad-looking. So I'm used to it, though. So as soon as I felt that, I knew what I was feeling."

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