'Real Housewives of Atlanta' star Mama Joyce says "she is done with the show after this season," and "she has her own money" [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

It has been a whirlwind of emotion as fans watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss duke it out with her own mother, Mama Joyce. 

But in an exclusive interview with MStars reporter, Star Connor, Mama Joyce opened up, revealing more than she has on the reality show. The MStars reporter also learned that she and Mama Joyce had a favorite food in common, meatloaf.

In the one-hour interview, MStars reporter Star Connor helped shed the positive light on such a negative scene, the show has brought to Kandi and her mother. 

Star: What do you think about all the negativity fans of the show have been saying and posting about you?

Mama Joyce: "Now me and Kandi are great. I was so upset, we're were not talking or anything. But when I found out she was going to the Bahamas, I said, I'm not going to let my child go all the way to the Bahamas and not speak to her. If something would have happened to her or to me, than it would have killed us both. So we talked after I left her a voicemail, telling her to have a good time and that I would see her when she got back. She had called me back, saying she was asleep when I had called, and to enjoy my Christmas and that she and Riley were looking forward to seeing me when they get back. We talked while she was down there, and we have been talking every since. She's my baby and I love her more than I love myself."

Star: What are some things you and your family have planned for 2014?

Mama Joyce: "My plan is to make sure that I am completely out of her business. From this point on, her decisions are her decisions, she's got to live with it. Because health wise, I cannot go on with what I went through last year."

Star: So does the negativity make you want to leave the show next season?

Mama Joyce: "Oh definitely!" It's just not worth it, you know. The separation from my child was like a death to me, because I have already lost one child, and I couldn't bare losing Kandi. I just want to stay out of her business and as far as Todd, I pray and hope he has good intentions, and if not, I am there for her. I pray and hope that I am wrong about him."

Star: Will you be present if your daughter Kandi decides to marry Todd?

Mama Joyce: "If she wants me there, I'll be there."

Star: When did you stop liking Todd? What are the reasonings that you want him investigated?

Mama Joyce: "I just didn't like the fact that since he's been with her he really hasn't been working. Kandi said that I look at a man like a "paycheck." I said, no I look at them as a provider. Let me tell you a true story. My son when he had finished his first year of college, was offered a job with one of his godparent's construction company. The first day on his job, he was laid out on the floor, and when I came in from my 10-hour workday, I said you will be alright tomorrow, after he had said he was tired. But for twp weeks he worked that job, and before that he worked at Six Flags. My point to that story is, you need to teach a man, that a man is supposed to work. You don't hinder a man from working, you let a man know that is what he is supposed to do, they are supposed to provide. You need to let a person know that they have to pay for a place to stay, you don't cripple a man by letting him have a place to stay."

Star: So why do you live in the house with Kandi?

Mama Joyce: "The house that you see on the show is my house. The house that I live in is the same house that I bought the year before Kandi was born. I have been saving all my life, I had 13 brothers and sisters, so I have always saved. I've been working and paying into the system since I was 12-years-old. I had two incomes when I went on disability and retired from my job from a serious brain spinal injury in 1989. So that was more than enough to take care of me and Kandi. I had money then, when they gave me my social security. You can call Tiny's momma. The girls from Xscape will tell you, Mama Joyce had money. I still got money, my own money. Xscape started in my basement, that was the one thing that kept me from going crazy after my son passed."

Star: How do you feel about your granddaughter, Riley dating?

Mama Joyce: "I hope it is a long ways off. Riley has an old soul, in fact she is coming over this weekend to cook meatloaf." (After Mama Joyce told me that, I had mentioned that was my favorite meal as well, and in fact was planning on making one this weekend myself. We both giggled and then she continued.) "So I hope she takes her time, and right now I think Riley's into Instagram, and I told her not to post a picture that could come back to haunt her."

Star: Are you dating anyone?

Mama Joyce: "Yes I am, it's somebody that I have known for years. We starting dating about a year in a half ago."

Star: Does Kandi approve?

Mama Joyce: "Yes she does, she likes him."

Star: Do you think Kandi and Todd's relationship will survive?

Mama Joyce: "Well you know, you never can say. Who would have thought that Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown's marriage would last as long as it did. It wasn't a marriage made in heaven, but it did last a long time."

Star: We were talking about the losses in your life, well I know a lot of the viewers want to know, why do you treat the men in Kandi's life so bad? Her late ex-fiancé, A.J. who was killed, had a difficult time with you as well.

Mama Joyce: "One thing that I didn't like about A.J. was that when he met Kandi, he told her that he only had three kids. It wasn't until she got all involved, that she found out he had six kids. She said if she had known that he had six kids she wouldn't have dated him." 

Star: Is there anyone out there good enough for your Kandi?

Mama Joyce: "I just want her to have a nice guy, somebody that is on his grind. Kandi is what you call a 'leader hustler,' she is a legal hustler."

Star: Do you feel that some men are just too intimidated by Kandi?

Mama Joyce: "I'm sure they are. But like I said, I am going to just stay out of that part and let her pick, because I didn't pick good for myself, you know."

Star: Why do you feel like you have to protect your daughter so much?

Mama Joyce: " I guess it's my motherly instinct. I'm sure your mother is the same way."

Star: Will you ever be able to get along with Todd?

Mama Joyce: "You never can say never. But I'll tell you one thing, if I am wrong about him, I will be the first to apologize to him."

Star: Do you think Todd really cheated, or is cheating now?

Mama Joyce: "Now I don't think he is, but back then I would have hired an investigator. Because people came to me, I didn't go looking for that. That was the topic at parties and stuff, I'm the last person to talk about my own child. I want to squash things, and get to the bottom of it. I'm going to protect her with my life, that is why I was so angry in the show. When he said that Kandi needed to talk to me, because he was upset and Carmen was upset, what man do you know includes an employee in a family issue? You have to read between people and how they say things. He never said Kandi your are upset, Riley is upset."

Another thing Mama Joyce wanted cleared up was the episode when everyone judged her comment about the "my picture" drama. She was not talking about her picture on the wall, she was upset that her granddaughter was not on the wall where all of Todd's baby photos were.

Mama Joyce: "The show edits things the way they want to. I wasn't talking about my picture, I was talking about Riley's picture. I was upset at the decorator and I am not sure if they said Carmen helped, but I am not going to put that on her because I was not there. But if you come into Kandi's house from the garage, Todd had said, 'don't hate me because I'm killing the wall,' all you see is photos of him since his was a child all the way till now and none of Riley. Now Riley does have a section in the house, but not on the main wall when you are coming into the house. I think it should be Riley as she goes on to the next grade. The people that is most important to you should be who is on pictures. When you come into my house I got pictures of Riley and Kandi when she was a baby. They didn't show that part what I'm talking about now because I guess they caught 'my picture,' and that made a good story, 'my picture of me.' I could care less about a picture of me. I call it the wall of shame."

After all that was shared, we hope that this interview helps fans still love Mama Joyce, and hope that mothers and daughters out there can also relate. One must know that she is a mother, and that any mother would want to protect her child. 

MStars is glad that Mama Joyce is deciding to quit the show and take care of her health and continue to build a relationship with her daughter, Kandi and the rest of her family. 

MStars thanks Tara Thomas Agency for the exclusive interview.

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