As one of the veteran Housewives on The Real Housewives of Miami, Alexia Nepola knows a thing or two . So when the show was renewed for a fourth season after almost seven years off the air, she was ready to bring the heat. And now that she’s warmed up, she’s even more ready for season five. “I always have that same feeling about filming, which is: I’m always ready, because the show documents my life. So if they were to come now, it’d be whatever you see me doing this month,” Alexia, who has starred on The Real Housewives of Miami since season one, tells StyleCaster.
Alexia is one of nine cast members on The Real Housewives of Miami season five, which premiered on Peacock on December 8. Other cast members include fellow Housewives Larsa Pippen, Lisa Hochstein, Guerdy Abraira, Julia Lemigova, Dr. Nicole Martin, as well as Friends Marysol Patton, Adriana de Moura and Kiki Barth. A lot has happened between seasons four and five for Alexia, who married her husband, Todd Nepola, in 2021 and mourned the death of her mother just weeks before. “How it’s been different for me this season is very obvious. I’m in a much better place in my life, thankfully. I have a lot of peace and happiness. I’m enjoying being married,” Alexia says. “As far as my family, which makes it the most difficult thing to film if you’re going through something like I was going through, it’s good. Unfortunately for Lisa, it’s her turn where she’s going through a divorce publicly.”
Aleia’s less dramatic personal life has also allowed her to focus more on the drama outside of her family, for better and for worse. “I can concentrate a little bit more on all these ladies. I have a lot more things to say. I’m a lot more involved,” she says. ”But at the end of the day, we’re all friends. We laugh, we scream, we fight, we love and we have fun.”
Ahead, Alexia talks to StyleCaster about her feud with Guerdy on RHOM season five, her reaction to Lea Black’s cameo, and how she was asked to be a part of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip season three.
Image: Courtesy of Peacock.
Lea Black, who was a Miami Housewife from seasons one to three, made a cameo in a scene with Lisa, which was seen in the season five trailer. What was your reaction when you saw that?
I was in shock because I felt like she was being a hypocrite. Behind the scenes, she’s said a lot of not-nice things about us and the show itself. It kind of shows that she was bitter and angry, like a lot of these Housewives who aren’t asked back or are fired. Now thinking about it, I’m like, “Wait, so you said all these things about us on the show before, but now you’re showing up and you’re filming?” Actually, thank you, because you’re saying, ‘This is OK, and I should support your show, and I want to be part of it.’ But sometimes people don’t have a place anymore. In this case, she has no connection with any of us, except maybe Lisa, because of legal reasons maybe. But it’s actually flattering she wanted to be part of our show because we have such a great show.
When’s the last time you spoke to her?
Maybe five or six years ago? That would have been the last time. I don’t think she resides in Miami anymore full time. We don’t frequent the same places. I haven’t seen her here in Miami or spoken to her ever again. All I know are the things she says and does behind the scenes. When I saw the trailer at Bravo Con, I was like, ‘Really? How much of a hypocrite are you? All you do is talk bad things about our show and about me and the rest of the girls. So if it was so bad, why would you want to be part of it?’ By her showing up and filming with Lisa, I was like, ‘Hmm! You really love our show.’
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At the end of the day, we’re all friends. We laugh, we scream, we fight, we love and we have fun.”
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It seemed like a lot of the drama that happened between you and Guerdy over your wedding party in the first episode of season five happened off camera. Can you explain what happened?
Todd said, ‘I just want to do the celebration on a Saturday.’ Because it’s on a yacht, it’s downtown, it makes it very difficult. We need to secure a Saturday. When the yacht called me and said we have a Saturday available because there was a cancellation, I said, ‘We’ll take it.’ The first person I called was Guerdy. I expected her to be happy, and say, ‘Oh my God. This is great. I can’t wait.’ But as we kept talking, the conversation—this was not on camera; this was before we were even filming—was very awkward. She was being very awkward. She was being rude. I took it a different direction. I said, ‘If you’re trying to hurt me and be mean to me, I’m gonna play the same game. That’s not what I called you for. I called you very nicely to tell you how excited I was and I would love to work with you. Then you started giving me excuses for how you couldn’t do it, being mean and rude. I can be mean and rude as well.’ She was giving me all these reasons why she could not do my wedding party. Then I said, ‘Well, you know what? Then maybe you shouldn’t do it. Because it’s not like you’re so great at it.’ I never mentioned her brother’s fundraiser because I’ve done fundraising all my life from my heart. I’ve done all these organizations and it’s not about spending the money on the decor for the party. It’s about collecting for the organization. She wants to throw in her brother. The pity party. She wants to give it that avenue to make it seem like, ‘Oh my God. You’re disgusting. You’re comparing my brother’s charity to your wedding party.’ No, it shouldn’t even be in the same sentence. What I was trying to tell her was, ‘I want you to do my wedding party.’
At some point in the conversation, we did address the fact that her party—not the cause of it; the cause of it is extraordinary, amazing and beautiful—but the decor versus Marysol’s decor for my bachelorette party, and then she made it about that. I honestly gave her the ammunition so that she can say, ‘You did this to yourself.’ When the truth is she told me she wasn’t doing it. A lot of things happened off camera before we started filming. I think she wanted to do it last season so she could have a story because I was one of the OG. I honestly felt really sad about it. There were no cameras. When I hung up the phone, I was almost crying. I called my friend and was like, ‘Can you imagine that she’s doing this?’ I honestly thought last season she was using me so she could have a story because she was doing my wedding party. I never even said that to her this season. But thank you for bringing this up because I’m going to touch on that at the reunion. She thought I hurt her about her brother’s thing. Well, I felt she just used me for last season. You know what she told me? ‘Moving forward, I don’t want to show my business so much. I’m going to show my personal life. I just want to be more me.’ It didn’t make any sense. That’s why I feel the way I did. But I didn’t want to give it so much value because I’ve gone through so much in my life. I just want to have a party. I didn’t care if the flowers were flown in from Colombia or if they were flowers from somebody’s backyard.
Image: Courtesy of Peacock.
There’s a scene in the first episode where you and Guerdy are talking and then you talk to someone else. What was your reaction when Guerdy said in her confessional that it was an example of how you’re dismissive, disrespectful and entitled?
I just feel sorry for her that she felt I was dismissive because I don’t see myself being dismissive or disrespectful. The way that she described me is not me. I told the girls if the shoe fits, wear it. That quote is the only thing that stuck to me of anything Lea Black said—and I’m Latina so I don’t really say those American sayings—but when she said, ‘If the shoe fits, wear it,’ I was like, ‘That’s a good one.’ It’s true. Guerdy said I’m dismissive, disrespectful and what else? I saw it and I didn’t even capture it. It’s so above me. I’m not that person. I’m not dismissive. I give everybody a chance. But what I am is real and what I don’t like are lies. That’s the problem I have with a lot of these women because they want to be somebody on camera, and behind the scenes, they’re somebody else.
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What I am is real and what I don’t like are lies.
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You’re in the cast for The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip season three. How were you asked to be a part of it and what can you say about the season?
Obviously, I knew about the Ultimate Girls Trip. I just got that call. They said, ‘Would you be interested? We’re planning on doing Ultimate Girls Trip season three, and we want Miami to be part of it. You’re going and Marysol is coming with you.’’ I was like, ‘Yay!’ I’m blessed that we got to travel together and go to Thailand. Actually, we didn’t travel together. They separated us. That’s a different story. But it was a beautiful experience because it’s a very different show from the Housewife show. The fact we got to meet these girls for the first time and not know too much about them, except what you see on TV. I don’t really watch too much TV, so I went in with an open heart and mind and I gravitated to my light. I liked all of them. I learned from all of them. In the beginning, it was like, ‘OK. What is this gonna be?’ And then when it was almost over, we were crying like we don’t want it to be over. We wanted to extend it for another week because we’re having so much fun and liking each other.
Image: Courtesy of Peacock.
Porsha Williams from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, is also in the Ultimate Girls Trip season three cast. You also attended her wedding with Marysol. What was that like?
Porsha’s wedding was, hands down, the most incredible wedding. By the way, so was Teresa’s [Giudice]. I was like, ‘Thank God this is not my wedding.’ My wedding was nothing like that because I eloped. The truth was it was my third wedding and Todd and I don’t like those over the top parties. We just like it to be about him and I. Once upon a time, I did want that when I was in my 20s. That was my dream to have one of those over-the-top weddings. Luckily for me, I got to attend and not be the bride because I can’t even imagine the amount of work and stress that went into that wedding because everything was spectacular. The most beautiful flowers, the food was incredible, the entertainment, Dru Hill and Sisqo performed. I mean, her dresses. Everything was so perfect. There, I saw Kandi [Burruss]. I saw Kim Zolciak. I saw Nene [Leakes]. I haven’t seen Nene in a while. It was perfect. It was a really beautiful wedding.
The Real Housewives of Miami is available to stream on Peacock.
Courtesy of Amazon.
For more about the Real Housewives, check out Brian Moylan’s 2021 book, The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Housewives. The New York Times bestseller gives fans an inside look into the Real Housewives franchise—which includes shows in Orange County, New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Miami, Beverly Hills, Potomac, Dallas and Salt Lake City—and the behind-the-scenes drama viewers didn’t seen on screen. Written by Vulture’s Brian Moylan, The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives, which includes interviews from Real Housewives producers and Housewives, is a deep dive into all the Real Housewives secrets Bravo doesn’t want fans to know.
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