Johnnie Winston Seemingly Slams Kandi Burruss Amid Phaedra Parks Controversy

Is Kandi Burruss actually as “real” as they come? Kandi’s former employee, Johnnie Winston, who was advised by Kandi’s former friend and The Real Housewives of Atlanta co-star, Phaedra Parks, when he sued Kandi, doesn’t seem to think so. On Thursday, Johnnie posted a quote to his Instagram page that stated, “Before you say nothing about you is fake, please make sure that everything on you is real.”

While Johnnie didn’t indicate specifically who he was targeting with his quote, it might have been his former employer Kandi, and right before Johnnie posted that quote, Bravo posted a sneak peek of part 4 of the season 9 reunion show that shows Kandi confronting Phaedra about helping Johnnie after he sought her legal assistance.

There is also the fact that throughout her many seasons on the show, Kandi has repeatedly maintained that she’s “real” as opposed to “fake.” Kandi has also frequently touted how “real” she is on social media, proclaiming that she, unlike some of her co-stars, doesn’t make things up or behave in a certain way just to have a storyline on Real Housewives. Kandi frequently shares viewers’ tweets that proclaim how real she is, voicing her agreement with the 100 emoji, which Johnnie included in his Instagram post.

Just last week, Kandi agreed with a viewer who said that Kandi tells it like it is whether she likes you or not.

RT @pretty_choxolat: one thing about @Kandi she gone tell it like it is rather she cool with you or not. Can't deny that ???<- ?

— Kandi Burruss (@Kandi) May 1, 2017

In another example, in late February, Kandi shared a viewer’s tweet that proclaimed that Kandi’s as real as they come.

RT @Porshay_I: I love me some @Kandi she is as real as they come I love a person who can keep it ? no matter the situation <- thank you!

— Kandi Burruss (@Kandi) February 27, 2017

On part 4 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta season 9 reunion show that will air on Sunday night, Kandi Burruss lashes out at Phaedra Parks for her role in Johnnie Winston’s lawsuit. During the season, viewers saw Johnnie seek Phaedra’s help in suing Kandi. Johnnie, whom Kandi let go after discovering that he badmouthed her on social media, essentially calling her fake, claimed that he worked many hours that he was not paid for.

Johnnie also claimed that Kandi took ideas from him without compensation, including the concept for her A Mother’s Love musical and her Old Lady Gang restaurant. Phaedra told him that she wasn’t an employment lawyer but would refer him to another lawyer.

Phaedra ended up accompanying Johnnie to that lawyer’s office twice. That lawyer ultimately decided to represent Johnnie in his wages claim against Kandi. The reunion show sneak peek shows Kandi giving her opinion that Phaedra helped Johnnie as a way to hurt her.

“I just felt like she definitely was purposefully trying to get me back in a way that was gonna hit my pocket. So I believe she was trying to be vindictive.”

When Andy asks Phaedra if that was her motive, Phaedra, in a very quiet voice, maintains that she didn’t help Johnnie in order to get back at Kandi.

“It wasn’t. He came to me. We weren’t friends. I referred him to any attorney and I accompanied him to the attorney’s office.”

Kandi explains just why she’s so angry with Phaedra for helping Johnnie, saying that Phaedra’s action didn’t just lead to a dramatic story line but led to a real lawsuit that she’s still fighting to this day. Kandi reveals that Johnnie and his lawyers are suing her for $168,000 in unpaid wages. According to Kandi, she has already paid Johnnie every cent he agreed to and was owed.

“It’s not like it was just something that happened on the show. Like this is an ongoing lawsuit. Hey you know what they suing me for? I paid overtime. No, [responding to Andy’s query on whether she’s being sued for a small amount like $5,000] $168,000! A ridiculous amount that you know damn well that I did not owe him. It’s not like I never pay. I paid him everything that he agreed to be paid.”

When Andy asks Kandi if Johnnie did work on her wedding to Todd Tucker for all of those hours without compensation, as he claimed to Phaedra and the attorney she referred him to, Kandi says no. She then asks Phaedra how she came up with the calculation that Johnnie was only paid $2.30 an hour. Phaedra replied that she simply divided up Johnnie’s pay with the number of hours he gave her.

“I mean it’s simple math,” Phaedra says.

Kandi points out that it would have been physically impossible for Johnnie to work that many hours for her.

“He clearly would have had to be been hired 24/7 to get that dollar.”

When Andy asks Phaedra if she thinks Kandi treats her employees that way, Phaedra says that she doesn’t know how Kandi treats her employees since she’s not there. Kandi defended herself as an employer by claiming that she let Johnnie have a flexible schedule so that he could pursue his own business and was generous with bonuses.

“Johnnie took off whatever days he wanted for his event planning company. And I gave everybody, even if they were independent contractors, bonuses every year.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, right after viewers watched Johnnie Winston first meet with Phaedra Parks about Kandi Burruss on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Kandi revealed on social media that she had already fired Johnnie once before, but he came back asking for another chance, and she gave it to him. Kandi also blasted Phaedra for even meeting with Johnnie, revealing that before Johnnie went to see her, she already knew that he had been fired and why because she, along with the other housewives, were told that during the Old Lady Gang tasting event.

[Featured Image by Moses Robinson/Getty Images]