Bravo Insider Exclusive!

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

Andy Cohen: Why I Sent Porsha Williams Home

He also explains how Kenya Moore got a bullhorn on set.

Apr 28, 2014, 1:52 PM ET

The dust has almost settled in the wake of the epic Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion that resulted in Porsha Williams and Kenya Moore battling it out in ball gowns. Viewers had tons of questions on Twitter about how this altercation could've gone down in the first place, and Andy Cohen tackled a few of them on the latest episode of @sk Andy. [video_clip_url:http://player.theplatform.com/p/PHSl-B/yT7k3t_YLXoZ/embed/feed/TbRUMLBVCrbs/select/18yjGOCWu_9Q]

First things first: why was Kenya allowed to have a scepter and bullhorn at the reunion? "I didn't know about the scepter," he says. "She sat down. We started rolling, and then she had this wand. I saw that there was a bullhorn back there; I didn't know what she was going to do with it. The couch to my left was kind of nodding their heads and laughing. You see me laughing, and I was! I was chuckling because it was ridiculous that she was talking through this bullhorn. It seemed to be a device that she was using for humor. How long would I have let her keep it? Probably about another minute."

The bullhorn was what set Porsha off, and the fight that followed was upsetting for all involved—including Andy, who threw himself between Porsha and Kenya to break them up.

"A lot of people called me and said, 'How did you not see that coming? How did you not see that this was going to go there?' How I didn't see it is, I've sat through fifty reunion shows with fifty different groups of Housewives who have fought with their words...So, yes, I saw that Porsha was getting very heated. Porsha and Kenya were saying very nasty things to each other. They were insulting each other back and forth. Both of them were responsible. As they were doing that, I did not, in a million years, ever imagine that it would escalate into them getting up off the couch. I didn't."

Andy ended up sending Porsha home, but it wasn't all about the fight: if anything, it was out of concern for her. "The reason Porsha went home, which I got a lot of questions about, was that she said, quite clearly, that she felt that she was not prepared for the day," he says. "I don't know if that meant emotionally or physically or otherwise. I did not—and the producers agreed—want to put her in a situation...that she was unprepared for. There was more. As you'll see from the other reunions, there was a lot more frank talk. I did not want to put Porsha in a position where she couldn't feel that she could defend herself with her words and put further stress on her. That's why I sent Porsha home."

So, why should Porsha be the one to apologize to Kenya, who was clearly instigating a confrontation? Porsha raised her hand to Kenya, plain and simple, and this is why Andy encouraged her apology.

"The reason why I said to her that she probably owed Kenya an apology was that she physically put her hands on Kenya," he says. "I thought that, because of that, she owed her an apology. I understand what people are saying, in that Kenya was provocative towards her. She absolutely was. It was a really intense situation … I'm sorry that it happened. I feel badly about it. I don't want any situation to escalate like that. It's not pretty. I think verbal wordplay amongst smart, funny women—which all of those women are—is a great thing. We've gotten some intense and entertaining verbal wordplay at many reunions before. Certainly, Atlanta, they're some of the best at calling each other out, and working it all out, out there. That's what I had hoped for. When you saw me laughing, that was one of the reasons you saw me laughing. Everybody there was serving it up. They were all throwing shade at each other. There you go. I'm really sorry for what happened. I don't take pleasure in it. If I could do it again, I would not have a bullhorn there, of course."