*NeNe Leakes claims she is still undecided about returning to “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” but insiders say she’ll most likely be back, as no other network is going to pay her what Bravo is currently paying her.
Leakes is an OG cast member, having been there since the show debuted in 2008. At one point, she was the highest paid cast member, earning millions per season. Now, not so much.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, NeNe claims she’s not sure if she wants to return to the show for its upcoming 13th season.
Wendy Williams previously revealed on her talk show that NeNe was quitting the show, but Leakes later shot down her remarks.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Leakes, 52, tells PEOPLE. “I got back and forth with it every day. I feel like it’s a big conversation I need to have with the network and with production. Because if they value their talent in some sort of way, then we need to talk. We need to come up with some sort of compromise here.”
Adding “This time, being quarantined [amid the coronavirus pandemic] has really made me appreciate a lot of things about my life anyway,” Leakes explains. “I keep saying to people, ‘I want my life back.’ I can’t have these girls fighting with me on TV for no reason anymore. I’ve got to move forward. And if that’s all you want from me, I have to move on and I got to go. Me and my wig got to leave, honey.”
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NeNe Leakes SOUNDS OFF on ‘RHOA’ Virtual Reunion! Why She Walked Off and… https://t.co/usCotioEH3 I am #TeamNene ALL day! @NeNeLeakes, let these girls have it!
— Bouj (@SoFliBradfordI) May 18, 2020
Leakes spent Season 12 sparring with most of her co-stars. The war of words continued on the recent three-part, virtual reunion, which resulted in Leakes walking away.
“I’m still human,” Leakes says. “It’s not okay, sitting and being attacked over and over by the same people about nothing. It stresses me out. I am sensitive, I am. If that’s all these girls have the time to do, then production needs to get some new people on the show. Because why are you guys still focused on me over here? Why do you bother me like this? Leave me alone, child. Let me just be over here by myself. Why do you bother me like this? It doesn’t make sense. Why do they argue with me every time they see me?”
“You want to see if you can break me or not? You want the throne? It’s not going to happen. They ain’t going to be able to have it. It’s not going to be able to work. It’s impossible, honey,” Leakes says. “So I would just say we cut it out. It’s too much work.”
NeNe tells PEOPLE that she believes co-stars Kenya Moore, Cynthia Bailey, Burruss and Eve Marcille conspired together to attack her every word.
‘You can see it if you watch the reunion,” she says. “Whenever I get asked a question about Kenya, you’ll see Eva and Kandi and Cynthia all jumping in — not in my defense, in defense of her. That’s her alliance. And they can do whatever they want to do, I just want viewers to see and get it.”
She continued, “I feel like I’m always over here on this little island by myself. But at the same time, they say, ‘I’m not as fabulous as they are. I don’t make as much money as they do. I’m not in as many episodes as they’re in. I’m not as pretty as they are.’ Yeah, but I am the one that they all seek to talk about it. So all of those things that they say that I’m not, I am!”
Leakes could be convinced to return to the show if she’s able to bury the beef with her co-stars — including Kenya.
“I don’t have a problem with filming with her. I just don’t have anything to say to her,” Leakes says. “There’s nothing that I need to say to her because I have said all that I need to say, I have made apologies. I’ve extended olive branches. And she don’t deserve it, but I did it anyway. Somebody has got to be the bigger person. So I’m not engaging. She wants to keep the arguing going on for as long as she can. But what are we going to keep up? We look stupid now. We don’t have a reason! So I have another thing coming for that, sister. The door is closed, sweetie.”
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