Kiki Barth is stepping into her spotlight. “The Real Housewives of Miami” cast member has had a breakout year on the hit Bravo series, speaking her truth, standing up for herself, and, of course, stirring the drama every now and again. Despite her “Friend Of” status, Barth has proved to be an essential part of the group, revealing more and more about herself to the audience in every episode, and giving us a few laughs along the way.
We caught up with Barth ahead of Wednesday night’s reunion airing, where she broke down her thoughts on her journey so far and on the recent Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan drama, and teased the upcoming reunion.
“The season in general for me was amazing,” she told us. “I feel like this was the season where I was like, ‘You know what? Enough is enough. I’m tired of sitting on the back burner. I just want to have an opinion. I’m going to speak my voice and speak up.’ Obviously you see how this season turned out, but, I’m just glad I did.”
“When you let your friends know how you feel, then they understand how to treat you,” she added, a comment that can refer to multiple members of her cast, as this season Barth navigated tension with Larsa Pippen, her bestie who is currently deep in a relationship with Marcus Jordan, and Lisa Hochstein, who found herself still reeling from her very public divorce throughout this season. Barth had some explosive moments with both of them, moments she has been forced to relive as the season airs.
She explained, “In the moment it’s like, ‘OK, like, that’s not nice. Don’t say these things, you know? It’s OK to have an opinion, but not every opinion needs to be voiced publicly, you know?’ Sometimes you just need to have compassion towards other people.”
“Sometimes when you film, you’re in the moment,” she continued. “But now that I’m watching I’m like, ‘Wow, that was really crazy.’ I’ve never seen Lisa like this, you know? But hey, I’m just happy I stood up for myself. I said what I needed to say and I’m happy that I spoke my mind.”
Despite her tension with Hochstein, Barth teases some resolution between the two in the upcoming reunion episodes. “Lisa and I, you know … at the reunion, you’ll see that we had a conversation, and, hopefully we’ll move forward from this whole thing and take baby steps into rebuilding the friendship, because you cannot build a friendship foundation when you don’t know anything about each other.”
Barth also gave her view on the latest drama stirred up by her co-star Pippen’s relationship with Marcus Jordan, weeks after the two made headlines when they seemingly broke up during the Super Bowl telecast, sending the internet into a frenzy. The next day, however, it seemed that the couple had gotten back together, leaving Barth just as confused as fans of the show.
She cheekily told us, “As I was watching the Usher performance, I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s happening here? ‘So automatically as a friend, even though Larsa and I have our differences, I reached out to her like, ‘Hey, are you OK? Do you need anything?’ Like, you know, as a friend, I’m here for you if you need anything. She said, ‘Thanks, babe.’ But then, 30 minutes later, they (got) back together. So I’m just reading and watching the same thing you’re all watching! I’m not really sure what’s going on, but we’ll see … whatever it is will come out when the time is right.”
The first part of “The Real Housewives of Miami” reunion airs tonight, Feb. 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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