Bravo’s newest reality series, Secrets and Wives, might follow a group of affluent women living fabulous lives in a major metropolitan area, but it’s nothing like the Real Housewives franchise, one of the stars tells Us Weekly.
Andi Black, a thrice-divorced mother of three from Long Island, says she thinks “people are going to really relate” to her and her close-knit group of girlfriends. The pals have known each other for at least two decades, all having grown up together in Long Island.
“I love the Housewives but I think the main difference is we’ve all known each other for 20 to 30 years,” she explains to Us Weekly. So while there will be plenty of fights happening on camera, it’s not manufactured drama. “When the camera stops rolling, we’re still talking about the same issue,” she says.
Black, a former backup singer who was married to the lead singer of Jay and the Americans at age 18 (and has subsequently been married and divorced twice more), is the ringleader of her group of girlfriends, often dispensing relationship advice punctuated by her infectious, distinct laugh.
“I love to laugh and it’s gotten me through my entire life,” she says. “I am definitely the truth-teller [of the group], but not in a mean way — like in the way you would give advice to your kids. I want the other girls not to go through what I went through! It’s all about laughing and crying at the same time.”
There might not be any table-flipping happening on Secrets and Wives, but don’t worry — there will be drama. It just won’t spawn any long-held grudges. “Of course! Don’t you fight with your girlfriends? We fight more like sisters do where you can say something really mean [and then get over it],” Black, 51, dishes. “It’s not a hate that lasts a season — we get mad, we cry, we laugh about it after.”
Black isn’t afraid to expose her secrets on television, and says that her children weren’t worried about it either. “The one thing that they made me promise was that I would be myself,” she dishes of her kids, aged 31, 23, and 22. “They know I’m crazy to begin with.”
Secrets and Wives premieres Tuesday, June 2, at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.
