You know that one friend who—back in the before times, when such things still happened—you always ran into at the group hang? Maybe you never spent that much time with them one-on-one, but just seeing their face in the crowd signaled to you that the night was bound to be a good one. We’ve all got someone in our lives like that.
And in the world of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, that someone is Marlo Hampton.
Never a housewife, always only a friend of, Marlo’s been a stable, yet peripheral presence on the Georgia-based installment of Bravo’s hit franchise for nearly a decade. She’s been around longer than three-fifths of the current season 13 cast, and has watched other main cast members come and go. Hell, she’s done the seemingly unthinkable and outlasted the housewife who introduced her. (Pour one out for the one and blooping only NeNe Leakes.)
For whatever reason, that all-important peach continues to elude her, but it’s not hard to see why the powers-that-be have kept her around in some capacity since her introduction all the way back in season four. And that’s because, like that friend we all have, Marlo’s a damn good time. Not only that, she makes damn good TV and just might be this season’s secret MVP.