There are few people with as extensive of a reality TV resume as Phaedra Parks. After getting booted from the cast of Real Housewives of Atlanta nearly eight years ago, Phaedra has stayed booked and busy in the TV world, joining for a successful season of The Traitors and even going on to star in two seasons of Married to Medicine.

It’s since been confirmed that Phaedra has both left Married to Medicine and returned to Real Housewives of Atlanta, rejoining the show mid-season. Now that she’s back, fans are wondering whether this means she’ll be a permanent fixture in the series—and Phaedra herself had some choice words to say.

Phaedra Says She’s ‘Loyal’ To Real Housewives of Atlanta

Phaedra’s return to the show was apparently a long time in the making. She shared that it was something she internally debated for a while, and that ultimately it was a push from her fellow cast member, Porsha Williams, that convinced her to officially return partway through Season 16.

“Porsha basically called me as well, like, ‘Hey, would you consider it?’ And I love Porsha. Frick and Frack is always fun, always about friendship. That really made me really think about it seriously,” she explained in a conversation with the New York Post.

Phaedra made her first reappearance in the series in Episode 12. And because she always brings a certain level of attitude with her, she couldn’t help but joke that her return to RHOA would signal a major shift in the series overall:

“Obviously, it’s very nostalgic for people who have watched me have both of my sons on television to now see them as tweens,” she added, showing her more earnest reasons for rejoining.

Though Phaedra obviously came in pretty late to the season, she assured fans that she wasn’t just there to tide them over until the next season, instead claiming she was back with the franchise “for the long haul.” As if that weren’t assurance enough, she went on to speak about how much loyalty meant to her as a person, saying that her feelings of loyalty extended not just to the show, but to those who produced it:

Future Seasons of the Show Will Be ‘Revamped,’ According to Phaedra

Now that she’s officially back in the cast, Phaedra explained what she thought the future of the show looked like. For one thing, she spoke about a series “revamp” in the same conversation with the New York Post, noting that, though Real Housewives of Atlanta had always been about nostalgia, it would also do them some good to freshen up certain elements.

“I think you have to revamp it just to refresh the brand. But at the same time, Housewives has always been about nostalgia. People tuning in to see people they grew up with and the Housewives that they love,” she said. “So yeah, I think when you are going to revamp it, you’ve got to mix the old with the new. You’re coming back to see people that you are very familiar with, but you’re getting a little splash of fresh people and ideas,” she added.

Part of that revamp, it would seem, is putting the reality TV veteran in the hot seat. Should that come to pass, particularly during the season reunion, Phaedra said she’d be ready for it. “I think a lot of people are gonna be in the hot seat — including myself,” she pointed out.

“People love to try to put my feet to the fire. So, you know I’m ready. I stay ready so I don’t have to get ready. So yeah, let’s do it,” she emphasized. Longtime fans of Phaedra will certainly be happy to see that she hasn’t lost any of her usual fire. New episodes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta air on Sundays at 8:00pm ET on Bravo.