The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip cast on first impressions, beefs and more

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Africa is now streaming on Showmax after the runaway success of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip South Africa, which broke records on Showmax post-relaunch for seven-day views and became one of the 10 most-streamed titles on Showmax in 2024. 

The series brings together some of the most iconic Housewives from across the continent. From The Real Housewives of Durban, the cast features Annie Mthembu, Angel Ndlela and Jojo Robinson. Joining them are Johannesburg favourites Christall Kay and Evodia Mogase. Nairobi is represented by Dr Catherine Masitsa and Zena Nyambu, while Princess Jecoco from Abuja and Mariam Timmer from Lagos bring star power from Nigeria.

Watch the trailer for The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Africa

While we wait for episode 2, we asked some of the ladies to share their first impressions of the Housewives they hadn’t met before from other franchises.

Annie

Princess Jecoco: pure vibes. Fun, loud in the best way, and seasoned with just the right amount of spice. She’s a full-on tequila shot, not a sip.

Mariam: baby, that woman can talk. I blinked once and she was already on paragraph seven. But she’s entertaining, so I just buckled up.

Dr C: Arrogant.com, sis loves the sound of her own voice. If confidence were a podcast, she’d be all 100 episodes.

Madam: Cool, calm, collected. Grown-woman energy, like she’s seen everything and nothing surprises her anymore.

Zena: Hmmm… I’m still buffering. Loading… 27%.

Christall: Hhmm… That’s not a typo. That’s a whole paragraph of “let me observe first”.

Christall

I was very happy and excited to meet everyone and have a good time with the ladies but when I got there, I sensed that some of them were jealous. Mariam and Princess were nasty and ugly to me. I was totally shocked because I didn’t know them at all.

Dr C 

My initial reaction when I saw Zena arrive in Rio was one of absolute, unadulterated shock. I was completely unprepared, and I can tell you truthfully, I nearly passed out, literally. I had genuinely no idea she was going to be there, and the sight of her immediately triggered a rush of intense emotions.

My immediate fear was palpable. After the intensity of the reunion and the depth of our principled disagreement, my mind raced with the possibility that she would initiate an immediate altercation.

I was thousands of miles from home, surrounded by new people, and I felt utterly unprepared, mentally or physically, to re-engage in the hostile, high-stakes combat we had left behind in Nairobi.

Jojo

My first impression of meeting the ladies was that it was cool to see people you've watched on TV in person and that they all looked exactly the same as they do on camera. Honestly, everyone was very much what I expected, as I did watch most of the seasons to prepare. They were all just like they were on their shows.

Mariam

I didn’t really have any strong first impressions; nothing negative at all. I don’t know them personally and I haven’t watched every franchise in full. I’d only seen short clips here and there.

Jojo stood out because I had met her before in South Africa when The Real Housewives of Lagos premiered in Johannesburg.

What I did notice was that a few of the ladies seemed to be walking on eggshells around me, based on how they perceived me from my show, which is perfectly fine. It actually created a sense of respect and clear boundaries right from the start.

I would say I expected a bit more from them in terms of challenge or energy, but I also understand the dynamics at play.

Madam didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, both in how she handled certain situations on camera and behind the scenes. I expected more from her. She was mostly floating through and inserting herself into other people’s drama and storylines instead of building her own. I’m guessing it might be because she hasn’t been on TV for seven years, which is still not an excuse. With the amount of times she mentioned that they started the African franchise, I expected more and I was disappointed.