Apollo Nida’s divorce lawyers call Phaedra Parks ‘shady,’ divorce back to square one

A judge ruled last week that the previously granted divorce between The Real Housewives of Atlanta stars Phaedra Parks and Apollo Nida be thrown out after determining the process had been unfair to Apollo Nida. Apollo’s attorneys have since reacted to the decision by calling Phaedra “shady” because of the tactics her team used to allegedly keep Apollo in the dark, including the intentional misspelling of his name!

Apollo’s legal team of Onyema Farrey and Tessie Edwards spoke with the AJC‘s Randy Ho after the new ruling. From the AJC:

Apparently, the couple has to go back to square one and start from scratch. His attorneys believe Parks deliberately typed the incorrect names into the initial 2015 divorce filing (e.g. his name was spelled “Nita” instead of “Nida”), then had it sealed, to purposely keep Nida in the dark about what was going on. He didn’t even know when the final hearing was last July. By default, she won her judgment and was able to walk away from Nida without giving up a penny in assets or custody of their two sons. (He was served the divorce papers in March of 2016 with the improper name spellings.)

Apollo’s attorneys spoke about the “shady” tactics used by Phaedra’s team back in December. “We do believe that there have been some serious legal deficiencies in how the opposing party has proceeded with this case,” Farrey told 11 Alive.

Edwards added: “The petitioner, which would be Phaedra, did take advantage of the fact that he is incarcerated in our opinion. There was information that he was not privy to because he was incarcerated. There’s notices for dates and hearings and things that he was not given notice for, that he law says he should have been given notice.”

Phaedra Parks’ spokesman Steve Honig addressed the typo, which he admitted was intentional, but wasn’t meant to keep Apollo in the dark. He asserts that the names “were slightly altered in an effort to protect Phaedra’s privacy and prevent media on reporting on her personal life.”

Due to the misspelling of his name, among other things, Apollo filed a separate petition for divorce, which he has since dropped after the new ruling. The AJC provides this update on the focus of Apollo’s legal team moving forward:

Now that everything is out in the open, Nida’s attorneys plan to dig through all of their individual and joint assets and prepare for trial. Nida can’t physically be there. He is now in federal prison for identity and bank fraud the tune of about $2 million. His sentence, which began in 2014, runs for eight years. But he could file a written deposition or answer questions by phone if the prison and the court allow it.

That seems to jibe with reports that Apollo is now seeking millions in the settlement, as well as joint custody of their children.

Meanwhile, Honig recently issued another statement after the divorce ruling was tossed in which he questioned Apollo’s motives, especially given that he is reportedly now engaged to Sherien Almufti. Here is the full statement:

It’s very confusing why a man who is engaged and enjoys frequent visits with his fiancée would work so aggressively to avoid ending his marriage. Regardless, Phaedra is reviewing her options with her attorney to determine the most efficient path toward ending this marriage so she can move forward and focus on raising strong, healthy and happy children.

As always when it pertains to Apollo and Phaedra, stay tuned!