Chantel Christie is speaking out about the viral confrontation with her mom, Jackie Christie, on Basketball Wives and the deeper issues behind it.
During a candid interview on Carlos King’s Reality With the King podcast, Chantel revealed that the hotel-room showdown was “far deeper than reality TV drama,” admitting she felt like she was “toe-to-toe with who I feel like was my first bully.”
“When I got to that door, I could have and should have turned around and walked out of it, one thousand percent,” Chantel said. “When I saw in real life, outside of these cameras, you’re not going to take accountability. I’m toe-to-toe with who I feel like was my first bully. And I’m not backing down.”
The intense scene showed emotions boiling over into a physical scuffle after Chantel shoved Jackie, who appeared to swing back. Chantel told Carlos King that viewers only saw a fraction of what really happened, claiming Jackie came “prepared.”
“You called me up here to play into whatever narrative it is that you want these viewers to go with,” she said, adding that she wasn’t trying to revisit old childhood issues. “I wanted accountability for right now—at my big age, at 32, in Los Angeles, on these cameras, and off.”
Addressing speculation about whether Jackie actually hit her, Chantel broke down what happened: “She balled up her fist and tried to aim for my head, but because I ducked out the way, I fell into the cameraman. That’s how the finger ended up bleeding.”
She explained that the adrenaline and shock of the moment led her to tell castmates Jackie “hit” her, clarifying, “I think that it morphed into, ‘She really put her hands on me,’ because I was just in disbelief that you balled up your fist and tried to aim for my head like I was a stranger in the street.”
Chantel also opened up about a private health battle, revealing she has a brain aneurysm that was discovered when she was 27. “My family knows. Jackie knows,” she said. “So when you, my own mother, swing at my head, that’s not just triggering. That’s life-threatening.”
