Did she quit or was she forced out? The waters got a little murkier surrounding NeNe Leakes’ exit from “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” earlier this month after a Twitter exchange with a fan Saturday night.
The head-scratching comment came after a fan asked the reality queen if there were any plans for her to get her own spinoff series as has happened for some other “Housewives” franchise alums.
“They don’t think I deserve to work at all in any compactly [sic],” NeNe countered.
A fan picked up on NeNes’ intended wording and asked for clarification that this was what she wanted to be saying. “That’s [making] it sound like they forced you out! Is that the story you want out there?” the fan asked.
“They definitely did,” NeNe replied.
NeNe then followed it up with what almost sounded like a challenge to Andy Cohen, who, after her exit, penned a supportive statement about the woman who helped establish and build his “Real Housewives” franchise, calling her “an icon of the genre.”
He has not responded to NeNe’s latest comments.
Meanwhile, fans were quickly eager for her truth, with some frustrated that NeNe appeared to be dragging it out. Is she still under some kind of contract restricting her from talking openly about this?
Or perhaps she has pending negotiations — new show, new network? — or litigation that require her to keep her cards close to her chest for now.
It’s certainly at least possible to interpret these latest comments as NeNe feeling that she was forced out because they were not able to come to a contract agreement for her to return, If she was holding firm on some dollar figure or point and they wouldn’t meet her there.
NeNe did suggest it was a tense contract negotiation in her earlier post about quitting the show, saying, “I have been on an extremely, extremely long, exhausting, tiring, emotional negotiation. There’s a lot of emotion flying from both sides.”
“I’m just so happy that I can say that I was a part of a genre that opened up doors for Black ensemble reality shows to step up and be a part of what we now all love so much, reality TV,” she said, with much thanks then for Bravo, the production company, her costars and her team.
