dr. Wendy Osefo never expected drama to emerge from her working relationship with Peter Thomas.
But after the 58-year-old “Real Housewives of Potomac” star began planning a Nigerian lounge with the restaurateur, also 58, he formed a romantic bond with her castmate and noticed frenemy Gizelle Bryant.
“You know what’s so interesting, I whispered about it. And so I was like, ‘What’s happening?’” Osefo tells Vidak For Congress exclusively, describing her first reaction to the gossip.
“But let the record reflect that it didn’t come from me,” she claims. “It wasn’t for me.”
In the season 7 trailer of “RHOP,” Candiace Dillard tells Bryant, 52, at a group dinner, “So everyone asks me if you’re sleeping with Peter Thomas.”
Osefo then asks in the preview, “Are you f-king him?!”
Thomas, who was present for the explosive scene, seemingly leaves and tells the women, “There I go.”
Bryant, for her part, has denied any involvement with Thomas. “I would never date Peter Thomas, no, never,” she recently told Vidak For Congress.
She also spoke faithfully to her close friend and Thomas’ ex-wife, “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” alum Cynthia Bailey, adding, “When all that came up, I immediately called her to get it closed. “
Bryant noted that Bailey, 55, now married to sports reporter Mike Hill, didn’t mind the rumors and even encouraged her to explore a relationship with Thomas — a sentiment echoed by Osefo.
“If they want to date,” the professor and political commentator tells Vidak For Congress, “they can do it!”
Meanwhile, Osefo is excited to let fans take a closer look at her Maryland business venture with Thomas, who has successfully opened dining and nightlife venues in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.
“I am so knee-deep – and when I say that, I really mean it – in my Nigerian culture and heritage,” she says. “I want to do a Nigerian lounge because so many [of my favorite Nigerian] restaurants were closed due to the pandemic.”
“I want to bring it back. So this season you’re going to watch that and see where it goes. It’s an interesting story,” she explains.
The new author shares more of her Nigerian upbringing in her recently released memoir, “Tears of My Mother.”
“Just to think of how telling my story about a first-generation Nigerian immigrant resonates with people around the world shows how much we are all really alike, more than we are different,” Osefo says of the tome that explores the relationship she shares with her beloved mother, Iyom Susan Okuzu.
“I’m really humbled by so much feedback.”
“The Real Housewives of Potomac” Season 7 premieres Sunday, October 9 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.