Nene Leakes is opening up about her experience with Bravo as the star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta as well as her fallout with Andy Cohen.
Leakes was in negotiations to return to RHOA Season 13 but the parties failed to reach an agreement and “the tastiest peach of Atlanta” left the franchise. The Glee alum would later sue the network and Cohen over “unfair treatment,” a suit that she dropped in 2022.
A year after Leakes dropped the suit, she is opening up about the reasons she had to leave the show and it’s because she felt she “wasn’t getting fair treatment,” she said during an interview with Carlos King on Reality with the King.
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Leakes said she was getting phased out for Season 13 of the reality series and was only offered six episodes, something she didn’t think was fair. The former Bravo star said that executives told her the reason she was only offered a part-time role was because she looked unhappy. Leakes questioned how they were able to tell she was unhappy and if anything, what made her unhappy was that her episode count was cut short on a season that ended up having a total of 21 episodes.
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“I’m unhappy that I got six episodes. I mean, shouldn’t I get more than six episodes? Like, why is it a phase-out when there’s other girls who are not the same complexion as me and started as an original housewife?” she said. “Why are they being offered 18 episodes, and I am being offered six episodes. What did I do? Because I don’t know anything that I’ve done ever on this show that no other housewife in this franchise have not done. I’ve never done anything that no one else has done.”
Leakes cited that multiple incidents that she was being called out for that other housewives have aldo done but continue to be on the network. One example was when Teresa Giudice from New Jersey pushed Cohen during a reunion, versus when Leakes pushed a camera operator that was in the way of her getting into her closet trying to stop a co-star from rummaging through her personal space.
Reflecting on everything, Leakes says she’s always been open to having a conversation with NBCUniversal brass, and even after all that has transpired she “still respects them for what they do” in the television landscape.
“I want you to know that I have always from day one been very open to sitting down and having a conversation to figure out how to work anything out, how to move forward, how to just anything that we could do to just move forward. I’ve always been very open to that. I can’t say that the other side has been that way,” Leakes said.
She later added, “I’ve always been open to working it out. I’ve always been open to having a conversation. They have never wanted to have a conversation or they’ve never wanted to move forward in any kind of way.”
At one point, Leakes took to social media to call out Cohen and make some incendiary comments about him. During the interview, Leakes assured King that she now has no animosity towards Cohen and even congratulated him on his daughter.
“I don’t have any hard feelings,” she said on her feelings towards Cohen. “I’m a Sagittarius. So at some point, I may be mad with you, but then I get over it. I’m not the kind of girl that carries a grudge or hold[s] the grudge forever. I’m also not [an] ass kisser.”
She continued, “I hate that we’re in this place. I really wish it was a way for us to find our way back to each other because, you know, life is short and you just don’t want to carry ill feelings for the rest of your life. You don’t have to work together to do anything. But it would be nice to either just to just work through the issues.”
On returning to RHOA, Leakes said, “If I had to go back it will be 100% for the fans. The check is not a bad check although I think my check should be bigger… the check is not a bad check.”
Watch the entire interview in the video below.
