Kenya Moore Says She's 'Come a Long Way' After Abandonment by Mom Who 'Pretended That She Never Had a Child'

Kenya Moore wants to heal the wounds of her own childhood for her daughter's benefit.

In an exclusive preview of Wednesday's FOX's boot camp-style reality competition Special Forces: World's Toughest Test, Moore speaks about the issues she had with her biological mother in the past — and how they've made her a better mom in the present.

"I think I've come a long way from where I used to be," says Moore, 51. Speaking of her Brooklyn, whom she shares with ex Marc Daly, she continues: "My daughter — she's 3, and she's just the world to me. I had her very late in life, but I wanted to be the type of mom to my daughter that I never had."

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Kenya Moore/Instagram

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star appears to be in the middle of a trying moment on Special Forces when she's hooded and brought into an interrogation room to be grilled about her "angry, aggressive, petty, vindictive" RHOA persona.

Moore defends herself, saying her upbringing ingrained her with a feeling "like I always have a target on my back."

"I had teenage parents," she explains. "My mom didn't want to have me, so my grandmother asked if she could have me. After that, my mother kind of pretended that she never had a child. It just got worse and worse."

She tears up as she adds, "I was just angry."

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Pete Dadds/FOX

Despite emotional interrogations and rigorous physical challenges (which have even driven more than one of Moore's fellow contestants to exit due to injury), the former Miss USA winner still finds some aspects of Special Forces preferable to Housewives.

When asked recently whether enduring military drills or navigating a RHOA vacation was more challenging, she didn't miss a beat: "100 percent — this answer will shock you — a Housewives trip [is harder]."

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Special Forces: World's Toughest Test airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.