Gizelle Bryant Shares How the RHOP Season 5 Reunion Impacted Her Relationship with Jamal Bryant

Season 6 of The Real Housewives of Potomac kicked off with the news that Gizelle Bryant and Jamal Bryant were not in a good place after the ex-spouses rekindled their relationship in 2019. Gizelle shared with Candiace Dillard Bassett that having a long distance relationship with Jamal, who is based in Georgia, and not being able to see each other much during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had taken a major toll on their relationship.

Gizelle shared a similar sentiment while speaking about the current status of her relationship with Jamal in the July 18 episode of RHOP. "Mr. Bryant, how much longer are we gonna live life in the pandemic and in a long distance relationship?" Gizelle told Robyn Dixon in the episode.

Gizelle actually seemed to agree with an observation Karen Huger previously made about their relationship in Season 5. "At this point, I think Jamal is actually living in the phone, because I am not seeing this brother," she said in an interview during the July 18 episode. "And with him not being up close and personal, communication starts to fall apart, intimacy is obviously not there, and that's like the root of any relationship that's going to be successful. So I just need to take a step back."

But of course, as parents to three teenage daughters (Grace, Angel, and Adore), Gizelle and Jamal will always be family. "Will he always be in my life? For sure," Gizelle told Robyn in the latest episode of RHOP. "But should we be in something called a relationship right now? I don't think so."

Gizelle added, "This point in time in life, I need somebody who lives eight miles away."

During her appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on July 18, Gizelle clarified how the pandemic caused her to re-evaluate her relationship with Jamal. "Well, I didn't blame it on COVID," she said in the above clip. "I said what it was was we can't really see each other."

But host Andy Cohen also wondered if all the chatter about Jamal at last season's reunion had any effect on the couple. Gizelle confirmed that it did, in fact, have an impact — but probably not in the way that you think.

"That actually brought us closer, meaning we talked about it. He felt so bad about it. It was really kind of a great moment for us, I hate to say that, but it's allowed us to talk about the things we hadn't talked about," Gizelle said of the events of the RHOP Season 5 reunion on WWHL. "But be clear, that whole reunion, all that she was talking about was old news. Jamal and I had already talked about that."

When it comes to the new conversations that last season's reunion inspired for Gizelle and Jamal, she said that "he hated to see me have to go through that amongst the millions."

Want more RHOP? New episodes air every Sunday at 8/7c or catch up on the Bravo app.

Photo: Getty Images; NBC