The ladies of The Real Housewives of Atlanta are heading to Spain! Well… some of them, that is.
On Sunday’s all new episode of the hit Bravo show, the Atlanta Housewives hopped a flight to Barcelona for this season’s big girls trip — though not all of ATL’s best made it to the tarmac for takeoff.
Longtime rivals Kenya Moore and Kim Zolciak-Biermann skipped the getaway, for very different reasons that left costars NeNe Leakes, Kandi Burruss, Cynthia Bailey, Shereé Whitfield and Porsha Williams polarized.
For Moore, her insistence on avoiding drama and conflict in the wake of her marriage to husband Marc Daly was a real driving force.
“I passed on Barcelona because I have been on two trips already with these ladies and each have had negative components,” the 47-year-old former Miss U.S.A. explained, recalling visits in San Francisco and Houston earlier this season that exploded in questions about her relationship and criticisms of her attitude.
“My priority is my family,” Moore continued.
Bailey, a BFF of Moore’s, appeared to understand. “Kenya’s at a point in her life where she just got married, she’s happy,” the supermodel, 50, told audiences. “So if I can’t get Kenya to allow me to meet her husband in the United States, how in the hell am I supposed to convince her to come to Barcelona if she doesn’t want to go.”
But when it came to Zolciak-Biermann’s decision to stay behind, Bailey’s costars were far less understanding.
Perhaps that’s because Zolciak-Biermann has been difficult about traveling on group trips in the past during RHOA‘s first five seasons.
There was the vacation to South Africa that she skipped in season 4 so she could stay at home with her kids. And then there was the couples trip to Anguilla in season 5, which the mere discussion of caused the mother-of-six (who was pregnant at the time) to storm away from the cameras and quit the show entirely.
She’s back now after a 5 year hiatus, in a ‘Friend of the Housewives’ role. But even though she’s not full-time, the cast still wanted her to join them — and fellow guests Shamea Morton, Marlo Hampton, and Eva Marcille — for the overseas excursion.
Sadly, that wasn’t going to happen because Zolciak-Biermann wasn’t going to travel to Spain without her husband Kroy Biermann coming along.
Her reasoning? The mini-stroke she had in September 2015, that lead to her hospitalization (and, eventually, heart surgery after doctors discovered an existing genetic condition that required treatment).
“Less than two years ago, I had a stroke coming from L.A. which is a 4-hour flight. Going to Barcelona, which is a 10 hour flight, does make me nervous,” Zolciak-Biermann said. “I know that my husband would make sure I’m okay. He knows why signs to look for… It makes me very uneasy.”
“I don’t know why it’s an issue to bring Kroy,” she told her cast. “He’s my husband. I don’t understand what the problem is.”
RELATED VIDEO: Kim Zolciak-Biermann Reveals She Is Still Coping With Lingering Effects of 2015 Stroke
Not everyone was against the idea, including Williams, Whitfield, and Bailey. “This trip is a girlfriends trip. However, I know when it comes to Kim, her idea of girlfriends is her and her girlfriends and Kroy,” Bailey explained. “I have no energy to go back and forth about it. She wants to bring Kroy, bring Kroy.”
“Kim likes to bring Kroy everywhere she goes,” Whitfield said. “Now, I can’t say I’m 100 percent opposed to that because I’m a girl who likes to be spoiled. So if I got a man who wants to drive me around and sit in the parking lot, then okay!”
Still, pressure from folks like Leakes kept Zolciak-Biermann from getting on that plane.
“NeNe was super vocal about Kroy not going,” Zolciak-Biermann said. “A 10 hour flight and not bringing my husband, it does make me nervous.”
Her absence made Leakes happy.
“Kim is not coming, which I think is amazing,” Leakes, 50, said. “She was going to come and Kroy was going to come. But really, it’s a girl’s trip. And I don’t think that anyone should have to travel on this trip if they cannot travel without their significant other.
“I think it’s the strangest thing that she cannot leave and travel without Kroy,” Leakes added. “She can’t travel without Kroy? That is so stupid.”
Burruss appeared happy too: “If Kim wanted to come on the trip with her husband, than stay at home,” the Grammy winner, 41, said. “It’s a girl’s trip. Kim is always the one who feels like she doesn’t have to follow the rules. Which is fine. You don’t have to hang out with the circle.”
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.