Creating boundaries! Phaedra Parks has been very intentional about keeping her two children from her boyfriend, Medina lslam, until their relationship is “permanent.”
“I have very, very strict standards about me and my kids,” the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly of Ayden, 10, and Dylan, 7, on Monday, June 29, while promoting Marriage Boot Camp Hip Hop Edition. “They haven’t met. They’ve seen him on FaceTime. They’ve obviously talked a little bit, but as far as in person, not until we set a date for our wedding.”
The former Bravo personality explained that she doesn’t want her little ones to become “familiar” with someone unless she’s getting married to them, which she and Islam, 36, both agreed on.
“He has a daughter, so we are both very respectful of each other as parents,” the Georgia native told Us. “That’s what really made me gravitate toward him because he had no issues with my stance on being in my children’s life at a certain point. I don’t think that you should just bring in a lot of random people. I’m very private because I have to be protective.”
The attorney welcomed Ayden and Dylan with her ex-husband, Apollo Nida, in 2010 and 2013, respectively. The former couple split in 2014, finalizing their divorce three years later.
“Apollo and I started dating in high school, and now I’m in my early 40s, so it was time to go,” Parks exclusively told Us in 2017. “That’s almost a lifetime. Thank God it’s over, but thank God it happened because we have two beautiful kids.”
Nida, 41, was was sentenced to 96 months in prison in 2014 for pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud. Days after his June 2019 release, he was arrested again for violating parole. He moved into a halfway house the following month.
The reality star is currently having “difficult conversations” with her children about racism in the wake of George Floyd’s May 25 death. The Minneapolis resident died at age 46 when police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
“They’re very politically savvy, but at the same time, it’s always been important to me to be very honest with them about being a person of color, in particular an African American person, and letting them know that although we live a very affluent lifestyle, that’s not always the norm,” Parks told Us on Monday. “It’s sort of tough to talk about it because it’s not a comfortable conversation, but it’s a conversation that you have to have if you expect to affect change and you want change to come from the ground up.”
The new season of Marriage Boot Camp: Hip Hop Edition airs Thursday, July 2, at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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