It’s been nearly a month since A.J. Jewell, the ex-fiancé of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss, was killed in a fight outside his Atlanta strip club.
Jewell was a familiar face to “Atlanta” fans and appeared frequently on the Bravo series — but only now is Burruss revealing why the couple broke off their engagement last June shortly after the “Housewives” season wrapped.
“Basically, A.J. and I were having little problems here and there and the situation with my mother really just boiled over,” Burruss told The Post, alluding to her mother Joyce’s unhappiness with the fact that Jewell had six children with several other women.
“At the end of the [‘Real Housewives’] season you saw them making up, but as soon as the taping was over, they went right back at it,” says Burruss. “The tension was even worse than before and one day [Jewell] and my mom got into it and my mom said something and he was like, ‘I’m sick of this, I’m leaving.’
“I hated all the stress and tension because of my mom and myself and when he decided to leave, I didn’t try to stop him. I was tired of fighting for the relationship.”
Burruss will discuss Jewell’s death with her “Real Housewives of Atlanta” castmates tonight (10 p.m.) on Part 1 of a two-part reunion show in which they’ll rehash the season’s highs and lows.
She says that even though she and Jewell called it quits in June, they talked constantly — and spoke just two hours before his death. (Atlanta police have charged an employee of Jewell’s club with voluntary manslaughter in the death.)
“It wasn’t like we broke up and it was done,” Burruss says. “We were going back and forth among ourselves and talking about maybe working things out or maybe not, just like regular couples.”
Jewell died the night of Oct. 2, just hours after a final phone conversation with Burruss.
“He was talking to me about buying into his club, and he was stressed about that whole situation,” says Burruss. “I was the first one at the hospital, and the doctor told me first [that Jewell had died]. I was in shock.”
Burruss adds that, contrary to Internet rumors, she’s not pregnant with Jewell’s child. “I can’t believe people think that’s true,” she says (she has a 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship).
For now, Burruss, a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter (TLC’s “No Scrubs”) is focusing on her recording career and her boutique, Tags. “Of course, there are things I probably wish I would have said [to Jewell] that I’ll never get to say,” she says. “There’s nothing I can do about that now . . . so I just try not to beat myself up about it.”