“Everyone’s always there for [Amanda]. She never has to be there for anyone. She is always the damsel in distress, always the victim,” Ciara said during a June 9 interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “In the six years, I don’t think she’s really ever had to be there for me. And not that a friendship is based on reciprocity, but it’s now really clear that there was no type of reciprocity on her side. I tried to hang out outside of filming, check on her, speak life into her.”
“She’s ‘the victim.’ She ‘just didn’t know,’ she’s ‘so oblivious,’ she ‘wants love,’ is she supposed to be alone forever? I’m not going to go back and rehash the past, but everything now moving forward is on the cutting-room floor,” she continued. “Silence is an option. But I know things. I see things. I’m done protecting people by not saying anything. It’s really like a don’t-f*ck-with-me era. If you want it, you can get it. Don’t f*ck with me.”
According to Ciara, she was “always a friend to [Amanda], and [Amanda] was never a friend to [her].”
Reflecting on the confirmation of Amanda and West’s romance, Ciara said it felt “like a true break in the friend group.”
“It was so clear that things would never be the same,” she noted.
Ciara then spoke of West.
“I didn’t realize how much he hated me,” she said. “He got me good.”
“At this point, I already know who he is, so I’m done wasting my breath on him,” she went on, shadily adding, “[But] I’m pretty sure I advanced his visibility.”
Of the reunion, which concluded on Tuesday night, Ciara said she went into the taping wanting to leave everything on the floor.
“It was cathartic in a way to just be able to say what I needed to say directly to people’s faces and feel like I could close the chapter on this,” she explained.
Moving on to Mia Calabrese, 34, and KJ Dillard, 28, Ciara, who joined Summer House as its first Black cast member for season five, said it felt good to have them by her side.
“When it’s just me, it’s easier to write off what you’re feeling,” she shared. “But when someone comes in who’s felt the same exact things, then you know these aren’t abstract thoughts. These are real. I feel that Black women don’t really get the opportunity in the public eye to be loved and to love freely without either harassment or judgment to the nth degree.”
Looking ahead, Ciara said she was done trying to “maintain face.”
“Like, ‘Oh, this hurt my feelings, but I can’t even really express why it hurt my feelings, because people think that I’m going to bring up the race card, and everyone’s going to get all freaked out and then immediately not hear what I have to say.’ It’s unfortunate to have these conversations. It has to be strategic, in a way where people don’t immediately have their walls up, and they don’t go into defense mode,” she reasoned.
“I’m so tired of wearing the f*cking mask. I’m so done trying to maintain a particular image to be digestible,” she added.
Then, noting that she wasn’t yet sure whether she’d return for season 11, Ciara pointed out that she’d be in Fiji for five weeks to co-host Love Island: Aftersun, and she would begin filming Dancing With the Stars in August.
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“I’m going to get back in the gym. I’m going to start running. I have to work on my endurance, my core strength, and really prioritizing stretching. I’m treating this so seriously,” she disclosed.
