Phaedra Parks says she was too busy to notice Apollo Nida’s misdeeds

Phaedra Parks says she didn’t know what soon-to-be-ex-husband Apollo Nida was up to until he called to tell her he was in trouble. Even then, she says, he told her the federal charges against him were false.

“So I went out of my way to get him the best attorneys, the best investigators, and to do everything I could, because I’m an attorney myself,” Parks said in an interview airing on the Thursday episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

“I wanted him to have the best, so we could fight this together, but obviously it did not turn out like that.”

No, it did not: Nida is now in federal prison. He was sentenced to eight years behind bars after pleading guilty in May to identity theft and fraud, and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star is now divorcing him.

But -- how could she not know? After all, his illegal activities had been going on for four years.

“I work, I just got my fifth college degree, and so I am pretty much an overachiever,” Parks told DeGeneres. “I have two very small children. I just stopped breast-feeding three months ago. So, I didn’t have any idea that any of this was going on until he called me and said, ‘Hey I’ve been arrested and I’m having this problem, but it’s not true.’”

Also untrue: a rumor that she had an affair with a man from Africa named Chocolate. “Now, everybody know that I do love a Snickers bar every once in a while,” Parks said. “But it’s definitely not a man from Africa that I’ve ever had an affair with. I mean, it’s just absurd.”

She’s also sad for her two sons with Nida, whom she married in late 2009. He was on parole when they started dating, after serving time for auto-title fraud. Still, she told DeGeneres, she thought he was a changed man when she married him.

“My heart aches for my two sons, because they are the heart and soul of who I am, and that’s the best thing we ever did together,” Parks said. “We have great kids, and I never wanted to do anything to diminish his character in public, but we’ve had some times where he’s done things that weren’t so cool, weren’t so nice.”

According to TMZ, Nida basically blew off his family for the two months before he went to prison in September, choosing instead to party. He and Parks reportedly had an argument at their home the day before he turned himself in.

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