NeNe Leakes is uncertain she’d return to “Actual Housewives” in ‘buddy’ position: ‘First housewife, and I am a buddy?’

Actual Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes contended again in her season 2 tagline, "I don't sustain with the Joneses, I’m the Joneses."

5 years since Leakes final appeared on the Bravo actuality sequence, with followers nonetheless clamoring for her return, she might as effectively replace that line to, "I'm not a buddy of the Housewives, I’m the Housewives."

Leakes lately expressed openness to the prospect of rejoining RHOA in January, however she's decidedly much less enthusiastic concerning the prospect of becoming a member of in a "buddy of the forged" capability.

"I'm not mad on the 'buddy' position. I simply suppose, answering your query, if I have been to ever step again on that platform and would I be a buddy, I actually really feel like, I don't know that I might be a buddy," Leakes mentioned Monday whereas visiting the Humble Brag podcast, hosted by Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills star Crystal Kung Minkoff and her previous RHOA castmate Cynthia Bailey. Leakes mentioned her emotions a few potential Bravo return at size throughout the episode.

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Pressed by Bailey, who at the moment seems as a "buddy" on season 16, Leakes mentioned she "must take a look at it."

"I just like the 'buddy' position, I just like the capability, I don't have an issue with it in any respect," she mentioned, "I simply would suppose, NeNe, season 1, the primary Housewife, and I'm a buddy? I don't know."

Leakes was a member of the unique quintet of Actual Housewives of Atlanta stars, alongside Kim Zolciak, Sherée Whitfield, Lisa Wu, and DeShawn Snow. RHOA was the third installment within the actuality franchise, which has since gone on to spawn a number of worldwide sequels, lots of of stars, a whole supplementary podcast trade, and even an annual fan conference.

Following The Actual Housewives of Orange County in 2006 and The Actual Housewives of New York Metropolis in early 2008, RHOA'spremiere later that yr marked the beginning of the franchise and Bravo's first sequence with a majority Black forged. Leakes instantly stood out because the clear breakaway star.

She would go on to anchor the sequence for eight seasons (her eighth season, the truth is, in a "visitor" position), earlier than segueing into different actuality sequence like Celeb Apprentice, scripted sequence like The New Regular and Glee, and stage roles in productions like Chicago.

Leakes returned for 3 seasons of RHOA between 2017 and 2020, asserting in September 2020 that after "a particularly, extraordinarily lengthy, exhausting, tiring, emotional negotiation" she had "made the very onerous and tough determination to not be part of Actual Housewives of Atlanta season 13."

4 seasons later, Leakes nonetheless hasn't returned, and her relationship with Bravo and its most public government, Andy Cohen, have come beneath appreciable pressure within the ensuing years.

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Following her exit, Leakes accused Cohen of racism and referred to as him a "grasp manipulator" who, together with Bravo, had been "utilizing me for rankings like they’ve all the time executed." She then sued Cohen and the community in 2022, alleging racism and a hostile work setting, however dropped the swimsuit 4 months later. In 2024 she lampooned her personal actuality star persona in Lifetime's satirical horror movie Searching Housewives,alongside RHOBH's Denise Richards.

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