What happened to “Cheetah girls, cheetah sisters?” “Amigas, cheetahs, friends for life?” All those lyrics that an entire generation of people has ingrained in their brains instead of basic math? The Cheetah Girls — Raven-Symoné, Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams, and Sabrina Bryant — have parted ways since delighting millions in their Disney Channel Original movies (DCOMs, for all the Gen-Z-millennial cusps out there) back in the early 2000s. But after March 30, when Williams said on Instagram Live that she wouldn’t reunite with Bailon, drama that’s been dormant for 12 years reemerged. To help clear the air, Raven cordially invited Williams to an IG Live on Thursday, April 9.
“Because of you I get to talk to you and heal a wound from that time period when we were younger that I probably wouldn’t get to do if I didn’t understand that, you know what, you like to shake shit up,” Raven laughed. After breaking the ice (or, what do cheetahs do? Sniff each other?), Williams had to ask why Raven skipped Cheetah Girls 3. “The cliquish way that there was during that movie made me feel excluded from my original team,” Raven explained. “Not that it was strong to begin with, but I felt excluded … We have other things that just led up to that moment that just were weird, personal outside of business.” “That’s when me and Belinda became friends because we felt ostracized,” she added, referring to the Mexican pop star Belinda, who features in Cheetah Girls 2. Look at that, a peaceful resolution. Unfortunately, it won’t be as easy for Williams and Bailon. When Raven suggests talking it out, Williams immediately becomes emotional.
“No, she didn’t come to my dad’s funeral or call me when he died,” she retorts. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be messy. I’m being for real with you, no. I’m sorry, I love you. I swear to God, nope. Come on. You can say what you want about me and how you felt about me, but you can’t ever say that I didn’t ride for Adrienne. You can’t say that. I didn’t do anything!”
Okay … so definitely no Cheetah Girls reunion anytime soon, but there might be a Cheetah Girls fight. Bailon hasn’t publicly responded to Williams’s March 30 Live or her convo with Raven. Will the cheetah-print gloves come off? Or will one of them wave a cheetah-print white flag?