Evelyn Lozada is done with ‘Basketball Wives’ after nine seasons.
“I am no longer going to do Basketball Wives,” Evelyn shared with with E! News’ Daily Pop co-host Justin Sylvester. “I think that it’s time for me to open up the universe to other things.”
While Evelyn admitted that it was a “hard decision” to walk away after nine seasons, in the end it came down to the “heavy” toll she felt doing the series. “It’s not the most positive energy,” Evelyn explained, citing a difficult last few seasons. “Now I have a conscience about what I say and what I do and what my kids are going to see.”
Even Lozada’s family felt “relief” with her leaving Wives. “It’s time, it’s been time,” she summed up. Evelyn previously took time off from Wives to focus on OWN docu-series Livin’ Lozada before returning full-time in 2017.
“Going from OWN and going back to Basketball Wives, I was so far removed from this type of dynamic with the cast,” Evelyn confessed. “I did feel like I took a few steps backwards.” Evelyn was engaged to NBA player Antoine Walker before parting ways in 2009; she was also briefly married to football star Chad Johnson in 2012, and counts Rob Kardashian as a close friend.
Basketball Wives season eight concluded with an explosive argument during which Ogom Chijindu claimed Evelyn ex Johnson romantically pursued her. Evelyn later filed a defamation lawsuit against Chijindu in 2019.
Season 9 came with its own set of headaches due to filming during the coronavirus epidemic. “It was such a short season but it was stressful,” Evelyn continued.
And don’t expect to see the jewelry designer return to Wives anytime soon. “I want to take all my energy out of it,” she stated. Instead, she has her sights set on another series, perhaps even The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: “That’s the only one I would probably do.”
Evelyn previously told E! News that she was “emotionally connected” to Wives. “I was the first person that [co-star] Shaunie O’Neal called to do the show,” she reminisced in 2017 after returning to the franchise.
Yet Evelyn hinted at her exit in March 2021. “I want the show to be able to evolve with us because I feel a lot of us have evolved,” the mother of two explained on The Wendy Williams Show. “Yeah, we have those petty moments, but I want to be able to showcase different things and not just those big moments. I’m hoping that that happens.”
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