Kenya Moore doesn’t think her co-star nemesis will be quitting “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” any time soon, but that doesn’t mean she thinks she should stay.
Chatting with the ladies of “The Real” Wednesday morning about speculation that NeNe Leakes will be leaving the Bravo franchise she helped launch back in 2008, Kenya asked rhetorically, “Does she still have bills that need to be paid?”
Laughing, she added, “No, I don’t think so. I think that’s fake news. Listen, there’s not a lot of jobs out here that will pay a woman in their 50s — a black woman, especially — close to or over a seven-figure salary. So no, I don’t think she’s gonna quit any time soon.”
The catalyst for such speculation was actually a text sent from NeNe to good friend Wendy Williams, which the media personality then read on the air. “I’m quitting,” she claimed the message read, cryptically adding, “I know something about NeNe that you all will cry, be sad, feel bad for her. She’s carrying the weight of a huge thing on her shoulders.”
When asked if she felt the situation had been orchestrated as a way for NeNe to “leak” the news to the media, Kenya replied, “I do think there’s a sympathy card involved.”
“But listen,” she went on, “she’s been on the show for a long time, since the beginning. And I think the last two years have been really hard for her. I mean, #SpitGate is coming up, where she has issues spitting things at people, including myself. And I just think that that’s not the NeNe that we fell in love with. Like, we wanna see the fun, fun-loving, homegirl NeNe. And I think maybe it’s just time for her to take a step back from the show and just get herself together.”
Noting Leakes has left the show and returned in the past, Moore insisted “she needs to do it again.”
When asked if she believes NeNe has leaked any stories about her, Kenya burst out into laughter. “What stories has she not leaked about me?!”
“I think a lot of them come from her,” she clarified, saying the rumors “about my salary and me begging to come back and taking a huge cut” couldn’t be further from the truth.
“They actually gave me a nice little raise to come back,” Moore added with a smile. “So I’m proud of that.”
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
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