Kim Zolciak Says She Feels 'Safer' Being Vulnerable with '7 Strangers' Than Husband Kroy: 'That’s Sad'

Kim Zolciak is finding safety and security in an unlikely place amid her divorce from Kroy Biermann. 

In PEOPLE’s sneak peek at the July 23 premiere of Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets, the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum, 46, screams alongside her costars Josie Canseco, O.T. Genasis, Tyler Posey, Johnny Weir, Chet Hanks, Macy Gray and Ally Brooke as part of an exercise to let go.

“As I'm breathing, I'm just crying and crying and crying, and I need this. I really do,” Zolciak admits in a confessional.

Once the exercise is complete, Kim tells the group, “I'm a f---ing basket case.”

“Kim, did you go?”  Weir, 40, asks. “Just let it all go?"

The reality star then has a realization about herself, saying, “I protect everybody else. And I don't feel like anybody's really protecting me, from my parents to my husband.”

Zolciak shares that she was surprised she was able to be vulnerable in front of her costars.

“I don't know how to let go and then especially be that vulnerable in front of seven, I say strangers, but I feel safer with them than I do if I was to do that with Kroy,” she says in a confessional. “That’s sad.” 

“The fact that I can let go here and feel safe here, not even at home, is just crazy,” she tells her costars. “You know, I’ve been a mom since 18, so you gotta stay strong.”

The conversation then turns to Genasis, who reveals that he is also “carrying a lot.”

“I've been through a lot of things that people couldn't really even imagine,” he shares in confessional. “I've experienced, you know, people taking their last breath, people's mothers killed, their brothers, aunts, and I don't think I really processed most of the things that I've been through until now.”

Zolciak recently spoke with PEOPLE about why the show was the perfect opportunity to clear her head amid her divorce.

“The Surreal Life was one of the most incredible experiences in my life,” she explains. “My goal going on the show — which I've never watched an episode of in real life, and I intentionally didn't watch any when I decided to join the show because I didn't want to have any inhibitions — [was that I] needed some time away from the actual house to gain some clarity going through this divorce and focus more back on Kim.”

The show is set in a house in Medellín, Colombia, where celebrity participants spend two weeks unleashing their secrets and emotions before returning home. For Zolciak, the process taught her a lot.

“It definitely was therapeutic,” she says, noting how she practiced a lot of self care and relied on mental health resources. “A lot of the experiences, including the breath work, was a big one for me. I'm always on and I mask some of the pain and stuff with being funny, and so that was a really big moment for me. That was pretty life-changing. Just having that release was great and that's kind of how we started off the show. So I was like, ‘Okay, I'm in. This is going to be incredible, the next two weeks.’”

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Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets premieres Tuesday, July 23 at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.