Guerdy and Nicole from 'RHOM' on their 'fyah' season

The Real Housewives universe has been in dramatic disarray this past year. Between RHOSLC's Jen Shah's prison sentencing, the complete dissolution and rebranding of the Real Housewives of New York, shake-ups and scandals with the Beverly Hills ladies, a lackluster season of Atlanta, some shady behind-the-scenes goings-on with Potomac, and even inappropriate behavior over on Ultimate Girls Trip, lovers of all things "Real" have barely had a place to rest their weary hearts. And then season five of The Real Housewives of Miami soared in, on a private jet no less.

RHOM distilled what we all love about the Housewives franchises and steadily dripped it into our veins every Thursday on Peacock: low-stakes drama, high-gloss glamor, mess for the sake of mess, and drunken fun. We had one of the most outrageous divorce storylines in recent memory with Lisa Hochstein and her [expletive redacted] husband/plastic surgeon; we had Alexia Nepola burning bridges left and right with nary an apology in sight; we had Larsa Pippen providing reality TV gold with every back-handed compliment and baseless accusation; we had the greatest friends-of in the biz with the flawless, note-free Kiki Barth and perpetually drunk Marysol Patton, who played the jolly lush card right up to the point of worrisome, all set to the tune of Adriana de Moura's undeniable bop, "Fyah."

To quote that would-be pop diva, "Miami's hot-hot, hot-hot, fyah!"

Turning up the heat were sophomore Housewives Guerdy Abraira and Dr. Nicole Martin. Ostensibly the two most "normal" and "relatable" ones, both managed to juggle motherhood, demanding careers, and plenty of abject foolishness this season, all while looking great. While event planner Guerdy refused to back down from human wrecking ball Alexia, making for an erratic yacht fight in which they both erupted into tears at multiple intervals, anesthesiologist Dr. Nicole truly earned her Housewives wings.

In an instance of virtuosic pettiness, the good doctor sent Larsa a hand-delivered read in the form of a mirror with a condescending poem ("Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fakest one of all?") after the former Mrs. Scottie Pippen accused her, without a whiff of evidence, of sleeping with everyone at her hospital. It was such a classic Housewives move — melodramatic, over the top, vaguely ridiculous — as executed by a near-rookie. It takes some Housewives years to rise to that level of chicanery.

But The Real Housewives of Miami understand the assignment. They know how to have fun — and seem to actually enjoy each other's company — but also when and how to bring the drama. The more nonsensical said drama, the better. Lisa and Larsa argued about whether or not Lisa had a mortgage on her house. For, like, three episodes. In a world gone haywire, the beautiful simplicity of that kind of inanity is much appreciated.

After a banner fifth season, EW sat down with Guerdy and Nicole to discuss their highs and lows, what drew them to becoming Housewives in the first place, who may or may not be the fakest of all, and whether or not Miami really is… hot-hot.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What drew you to being a Housewife? Did you watch any franchises beforehand, and what's the experience been so far for you?

GUERDY ABRAIRA: I've been a Bravo fan forever, and it's so funny, I never saw that for me. It was more like a cool, this is good entertainment, escapism type of thing, whatever. I had a couple other TV projects that were potentials, but they were more like, you are the wedding planner, more like a Jeff Lewis type of scene. And I was kind of like, Damn, that's a little intense because this is you and your career, and that's on the line, and there's no going back. And we weren't prepared, I think, mentally, Russell and I.

So I kept going with my career, head down, kept it low-key, and people were always like, "Oh my God, your events are so amazing, but who are you?" They wanted to always ask me about myself and all that stuff. So when the Housewives called, for some reason, it was kind of like, this is it. It's a balance of everything in my life, and it's an ensemble cast. It's not just me.

NICOLE MARTIN: Yeah, well for me, I never thought I was going to ever do anything in TV. It was completely random how the opportunity presented itself. They initially wanted to cast one of my girlfriends and, ultimately, she didn't feel like she was a match for it. So she put me and the casting company in contact and it just snowballed. And I ended up here, and it's been a lot of fun, and it's been a growing process. I think I've evolved a lot as a person, and I'm thankful. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have done this, to continue to do it.

What's been your favorite part of being a Housewife, and what's the least favorite part for you?

GA: I feel like we share the same sentiment, the actual therapeutic aspect of it, of how it helped me better my life as far as my work balance and my personal balance. And Nicole?

NM: I mean, the show pushes you in these odd ways to kind of deal with personal issues that you may have continuously ignored or swept under the rug. For me and my dad, we probably would've never had these deep conversations that have led to a lot of healing and forward movement, so I'm thankful for that. I also am thankful that I've made some amazing, beautiful friends. I mean, Guerdy's and my friendship has blossomed over the last two years, and now she's a very close and dear friend of mine. Julia [Lemigova] and I have become very close as well, and Adriana. I think we have really nice genuine friendships that will endure way past filming ends.

And for me, I don't like to play offense. I'm never coming for someone. I'm not a drama-filled instigator. So, to me, the drama still gets me. I hate playing defense. I hate the fighting, I hate the pettiness. I know it's part of the game, but it's still, like, I don't enjoy it. I don't like it.

GA: You're pretty good at it!

I was going to say....

NM: I may be good at it, but I don't like it. I'd so rather just go down waterslides and laugh and play funny games and talk about porn, or whatever people are talking about.

GA: My favorite part is the sisterhood. I'm one of five girls. I'm one of seven children, but five of us are girls, of the seven. And my sisters are all over the world and I don't have that opportunity to stay as close to them. And then this show comes along, and I get to be myself, and I get to meet these different ladies who push your brain power and your patience level. And it's like, okay, I just gained eight new sisters. And it's amazing because you're stuck with them, and you got to hash it out and figure out what's going to happen next. It's beautiful in a way. But then it's ugly because you have to hash it out and you can't just walk away and say, "Eff you. I'm never seeing you again." I don't think anyone could relate to that unless you've been on this type of show. So the sisterhood, to me, is great, and it's bad in its ways, but it's going to win, though. The sisterhood is always going to win.

And do you have a sisterhood with other franchises? Because I hear that a lot from other Housewives, that there's a sisterhood around the franchises because it's such a unique experience for everyone. Have you reached out to other people, or have people talked to you from different cities?

NM: Yeah, I think people have been really kind to both Guerdy and I. We always chit chat about other women that have reached out to us from other franchises. I do think that it's such a unique scenario to be on a show, like reality TV, sharing your life, dealing with other castmates, that we're in a situation where very few people can understand what you're going through unless you've gone through it yourself. Tamra [Judge] Teddi [Mellencamp], Whitney [Rose], Tiffany Moon, the girls from Dubai, a lot of Housewives have been really supportive, and I think Guerdy, she's had the same experience.

GA: Oh yeah, I'm having lunch with [Real Housewives of Dubai's] Lesa Milan tomorrow. She's in town. And I was just with Dolores [Catania] and Melissa [Gorga], and Lindsay from Summer House. We are just all supportive of each other because we get it, and there's not a lot of us out there. So something like BravoCon was so amazing because we were able to touch and feel, and say, "Is this happening to you, too? Am I crazy or is this happening?" So you get that support that you are never going to find anywhere else. I can't tell my girlfriend who's not filming on a show like this what's going on because she'll be like, "Huh, interesting. Are you guys crazy or what?" So yeah, we love the camaraderie of it.

I've never been to BravoCon! What's it like?

NM: Oh, it's so fun. Overwhelming, but fun.

GA: It's great. It's like a high school reunion.

NM: There's an energy to it that the fans bring. So to be able to feel that and witness it firsthand was, for me, really —

GA: Nothing but love in that room. It was amazing.

NM: A lot of love, yeah.

So you mentioned finding balance. I've always wondered, especially with you two, because you both are so busy, Guerdy, with your party planning, Nicole, you're a doctor. How do you balance your careers, being a mother, being a wife, being there for your family and your friends, and the show and the drama comes with it?

NM: I mean, it's hard. It's not easy, but I think we both are very organized, borderline OCD when it comes to managing our —

GA: Just admit it. We're OCD. Yes, we are.

NM: So we both have checklists, alarms, agendas, planners, and everything is like tabbed, and we confirm things. We are just very structured and organized, and I think that that helps us both kind of keep things going.

GA: Oh, yes. Completely agree.

NM: And Guerdy's amazing at multitasking. She'll get like a pedicure, a manicure, a facial, and will take a conference call all at the same time.

GA: Oh, every day, all day. Of course.

Now, do you watch the show? Do you find it hard to watch yourself on the show, or do you like watching yourself?

NM: Oh, I hate watching myself back on the show.

GA: It's hard, especially depending on how the edit lays it out because I'm like —

NM: That wasn't the way that happened.

GA: You take the good with the bad, and that's how I feel like I will survive. If I'm able to say, "Let me be patient and watch the whole season," before I'm like, "Oh, I got a bad edit." Because at the end of the day, the producer's going to show what happened. And so, I'm always like, "Stop. Don't react. Watch more, watch more, watch more." And that's how I'm able to make an assessment. And now I said something [recently] and it turned into me calling Alexia fake or fakest, and it's because I watched enough to know, "Oh, there's a pattern there that's leading me to believe this," and I didn't react right away. I just wait before I assess fully what I think is going on. Nicole?

NM: Yeah, I agree with what Guerdy said. It's hard because sometimes you watch something and you're like, "Oh, but then you know, you don't get all the context." I guess what fans don't really realize is we shoot a lunch scene for three hours. There's a lot that happens in those three hours, and that gets consolidated into a 10-minute scene. So sometimes, it's like, "Yes, I said that to her, but you didn't see what she said to me before," or that didn't get included. And so sometimes it's like you watch back and you're like, "Oh, but I wish the fans knew what she said first." And you get in your own feelings about it. But I do think, like Guerdy said, that overall, as the whole season plays out, the story gets told pretty accurately, even if little details or little [bits of] context are missed.

Looking back at the season, was there a moment that you loved that made it onto the show, and is there a moment you hated that made it onto the show?

NM: I absolutely loved the scene where Martina [Navratilova] and Julia jumped in the water together. I just thought it was so beautiful. I know that they had kind of been going through some issues, so to see that happen, and now in light of everything that they're going through, it was really nice to be part of that. So to me, that was probably one of my favorite moments. In terms of least favorite moments, I mean, I certainly didn't like the Larsa rumor. I could have definitely done without that.

GA: Obviously, yeah.

How about you, Guerdy?

GA: Well, here's what I hated with the Alexia and me saga, is the fact that what happened wasn't filmed as far as that conversation on the phone. So it's like me telling her what's going on, and there's a moment where she calls me a liar, and I'm like, "We're not doing that." I'm not coming up and pulling storylines out of nowhere. So for me, it was really kind of fighting for what was right for me, in a sense of defending my family... that charity event is literally, don't even go there, don't even mention it in the same sentence as your bachelorette party and/or your wedding, and how you think that I need to tap dance a little bit more for you. We're not [making] this comparable because this is not comparable at all. And that was very hurtful. I didn't want to do that. You hear me say, "When they go low, you go higher." And then I'm there, in the thick of things, doing the same thing that I didn't want to do. So it was hard to watch me having to react like that to get that attention about something that was hurtful to me.

And a favorite moment from the season?

GA: Oh, favorite moment. I feel like the finale is going to be super cool because we're just like, "Come on, ladies. Let's do it!" It shows us really at our bonding phase, I think, it's nice. And another one was, obviously, the Bahamas, day one, where we were on the slides, having fun and people were like —

NM: That was a good time. The viewers were kind of like, "I could watch this all day." Girls just want to have fun. That was great. It was so organic. I loved it.

Yeah, it seemed like the vibe changed when Marysol came. Was that editing, or was that the actual experience?

GA: That was accurate. And, of course, you put one more person in a group, the dynamic does change naturally, but the topics in which the dynamic changed were like, okay, now we're talking about witchcraft and we're trying to say things were not intended nicely. It just started going... And she's such a fun girl because I'm like Marysol's the party, the hype girl, she's very fun. It just took a deeper turn and she had her reasons for it. She felt a certain way and she believes in a lot of spiritual stuff. So I'm not one to knock it. It's just that, yes, the dynamic changed, it did.

Now one of my favorite moments this season was from you, Nicole, When you sent Larsa the mirror, disinviting her to your engagement party, and Guerdy, you were sitting right there.

GA: Oh, god. That's your favorite?!

It was! When I hear people talk about Nicole, it's like you're so down to earth and normal and everything, and this is such a stunt queen moment, in the best way possible. What inspired it?

NM: I'm not like that, right? I'm not this vindictive, malicious, dramatic person. But coming for my career, something I've worked incredibly hard for, a lifetime of effort, to make a comment like that, knowing that it was a lie. She apologized for it. She says it wasn't true, eventually. And so to knowingly try to hurt me like that really set me off. And it was just something so crazy that warranted a ridiculous reaction. That's the only way I can treat you, is crazy. I'm going to treat crazy with crazy.

And what was going through your head, Guerdy, at the time? Because you were like front row center when it happened.

GA: Yeah, I was front row, and I didn't know I bought a ticket to the show. And so I was like, literally, you see me gasp. I'm thinking it's an amazing party, and I'm trying to figure out why is there an invitation to this new event, obviously, because [Nicole's] event, her engagement party, was right around the corner, the next day or something. So I'm like, "This is a late invitation to the engagement party." Or, "Is this a new event? Is this a luncheon?" I'm all giddy. And next thing I know, I hear, "Who's the fakest of them all?" And I'm like, "Wait, what?" She stops reading and I'm like, "No, no, no, I need to know what this says," because I can't believe it's from our Nicole and I'm trying to figure out what this is all about.

NM: It's so out of character for me.

GA: I didn't know that they had the conversation about Larsa saying that she had slept with all the doctors, the whole thing. So I was just kind of like, "Why would Nicole send this?" And that's when you hear me calling Nicole. I'm like, "What the hell's going on?" It was crazy. It was crazy.

Speaking of the Bahamas trip, Adriana said that her song, "Fyah," had healing powers when everyone was dancing and singing along to it. What are you thoughts on the song?

NM: I think it's a great song.

GA: Great song.

NM: It gets me going. Every time I hear it, I'm like, "Yeah." Catchy. I love it. I don't know that it heals....

GA: We are the world, we are the children. I don't know about that, but it's everything, in its own way, right? So it's a proper song, the seasoning of that song is Miami to me. The Miami anthem. No offense. I said it. It should be the Miami anthem.

NM: I love it. I think that song is great. I don't think it's going to heal anything in the group, but it's still a good song.

GA: Good attempt, though. Good attempt, Adriana.

Now, do you think Adriana has a point that the other women kind of freeze her out or don't pay attention to her or ignore her in certain ways?

GA: Everyone has the right to feel a certain way, and that's where things go left, when people do not want to validate somebody else's opinion, somebody else's sentiment, somebody's feeling. Why can't you say, "Oh my God, let me listen to exactly what I did wrong. And if I hurt you, I'm sorry." It's simple. And the group needs to learn how to do that. So we have some learning to do and some healing to do.

NM: I'm sure it has to be hard for Adriana because at least Guerdy, Julia, and I, we all kind of feel the same way about the OGs, but we all are coming in as newbies. So we are kind of like the outsiders that are stepping into their show, so to speak, at least in their minds. But Adriana has been there from day one, and so she's just like, "Guys, why am I being treated like the newbies? I've also been an OG. I've been doing this just as long. Why are you outing me?" And she's really the only OG that gets that treatment. So I'm sure that has to weigh on her a little bit, that she doesn't get the same respect from them that they demand.

GA: That's actually interesting. Yeah.

NM: Because at least with you and me, we're like, "They're being assholes, right? They're not being nice to us," and we validate each other's feelings, but no one is validating Adriana's.

GA: Right.

NM: Because she's the only OG that's on the outside.

GA: That's got to be tricky for her.

Final question: What can we expect from the finale and from the reunion?

GA: You see me trying to have everyone make amends by throwing a party that I think would do so, and you'll have to watch to see if I fail or succeed in that. And then it bleeds into the reunion, where it gets even more loud, chaotic, and emotional.

NM: The reunion's exhausting. I mean, it's a long day. It's like 12 hours. You start at 8 am, you finish at 8 pm, and it's a lot. You're basically rehashing an entire season, which was, I don't know, three months worth of events in a tiny period. Emotions are high. Now you're seeing what people said behind your back in scenes you weren't in, what they're saying on their confessionals, what they're saying in press. It's a lot of built up feelings that all just come bubbling out, like the Super Bowl of Housewives.

The season finale of The Real Housewives of Miami airs Thursday, Mar 2 on Peacock.

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