‘RHOP’s Wendy Osefo On How Karine Jean-Pierre Cameo Happened & How Friendship With Gizelle Bryant Can Evolve
Dr. Wendy Osefo returns to Bravo with The Real Housewives of Potomac Season 9 premiere on Sunday, October 6 at 8 p.m. ET.
The new season sees Osefo blossoming into new friendships and workplace dynamics that continue to showcase her strength and drive for success. One place where the entrepreneur loves to film is in her home with her husband and kids.
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“I feel like my home scenes are my favorite because, naturally, I’m just a homebody. I’m rarely out,” Osefo tells Deadline. “I spend a lot of time at home, so it’s my natural element, and I get to deal with my favorite people, with my husband and my kids. It’s always a joy to film home scenes, and I feel for some strange reason, my husband and kids always outshine me. But I think that that is very accurate, because they do in real life, even when the camera’s not here. I’m the most laid back person in the house.”
Despite being laid back, Osefo is not one to stand still and wait for opportunities to happen. She goes out and creates those opportunities for herself, like The Dr. Wendy Show, which is returning this fall with new episodes.
In the trailer for the new season of RHOP, the preview shows White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre making a cameo as a guest on Osefo’s talk show.
“I am just super excited for season two of The Dr. Wendy Show. We are coming back in October with brand new episodes,” Osefo said. “And you guys may not believe this, but the White House actually reached out to me and reached out to my team and said that they wanted to have conversations about The Dr. Wendy Show, and I have the email to prove it.”
She continued, “It’s super exciting. It was a moment. It was definitely one of those moments, a core memory, so to speak, that we’ll never forget. Because I think it speaks to where I have come to in my career, where people start acknowledging you for the work and what you’re doing. And it was a beautiful moment. I was just so humbled by it and till today, I still get goosebumps. I can’t believe it.”
Although the stars of RHOP are close to D.C. and run in political circles, Osefo doesn’t think her co-stars should venture into politics.
“Everyone should be active in the political process, one thousand percent, but I also believe that there’s a level of experience and background that I would want my policyholders and people who enact policy and speak policy to have,” she said. “A lot of those women don’t have that. So yes, I want them all to go vote, but no, I don’t want them to become political.”
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Osefo teased that viewers will get to see “a different perspective of the majority of the ladies because there have been so many dynamic shifts” in the new season following the exit of her friend Candiace Dillard Bassett.
One of the friendships that soured in past seasons was Osefo’s relationship with Gizelle Bryant, which continues to be rocky. During the Season 9 premiere, Bryant extends an invite to Osefo, which she does not see as an olive branch.”
“Tough conversations need to be had,” Osefo explained. “I say to viewers to make sure to stay tuned and see how we evolve. It just doesn’t happen overnight. It requires tough conversations and it requires a level of accountability.”
In real life, Osefo might not be inclined to work on her friendship with Bryant, but because both are on a reality series, some may think they are forced to repair that relationship. However, Osefo doesn’t think “anything is forced.”
“I think it’s all about the individual people and the ways in which they make steps to try to have a conversation,” she added. “I think that if we come into a new season and we’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re friends!’ Yeah, that’s odd. But if there are conversations and there’s progression made, and attitudes and behaviors are changed, then that is a natural evolution, not just on this show, but in life. You have to be able to evolve, but you evolve when people show you that they’re willing to evolve as well.”
As far as Season 9 goes, Osefo said she didn’t have “any expectations,” and all she knew was that she “wanted to have fun,” adding, “I will tell you that I had fun this season. I had a lot of fun. I got to celebrate my birthday this season. I had some professional and personal milestones. So I think that this season, for me, if I could sum it up in one word, it was fun.”
Osefo explained the contributing factors to having more fun this season than in previous ones, “If I could be honest, I didn’t care what anyone thought or said, and … I didn’t care about judgment, and I didn’t care about expectations of others. I lived for myself this season, and I think that’s what made it different.”
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