Season 13 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta already began filming mid-July without NeNe Leakes! The 52-year-old Bravo star has yet to sign her contract, a fact that hasn’t been well received by the cast. “The ladies are a little annoyed that Nene hasn’t signed her contract yet. They feel she does this every year and puts herself on this pedestal and they just roll their eyes a bit over it,” a source close to production EXCLUSIVELY tells HollywoodLife. Regardless, “They’re not surprised.”
Kenya Moore, Cynthia Bailey, Porsha Williams and Kandi Burruss have returned for the show’s 13th season, and they’ve been joined by newcomer Drew Sidora! The RHOA ladies “all still want [NeNe] to return because she does make good TV, but they’re fine with her departing,” our source continues. There’s already a lot going on in the world of RHOA, you see.
“They’re very excited to have Drew join them on the cast and there’s a lot of chatter of one other lady potentially joining as well,” our source teases. However, “Everyone’s still very early into filming with Cynthia’s wedding and that story line being day to day due to the pandemic,” our source clarifies. So, NeNe isn’t missing out yet on a major filming event — Cynthia’s ceremony with Mike Hill is scheduled to take place on Oct. 20, if it is safe enough to do so by then.
NeNe Leakes discusses her contract with RHOA in the above Instagram Live session on July 29, 2020. (@theshadeofatlanta)
NeNe, who is also the host of E!’s new show Glamsquad Showdown, insisted that it wasn’t her fault her contract has yet to be finalized! “I know a lot of people think it’s [my fault I haven’t signed my contract]. Nene is not doing that,” NeNe said during an Instagram Live session on July 29. “I’m still in a holding pattern. Let me start there. I also want to say that it’s not me, it’s them.”
NeNe’s rep Steven Grossman also told HollywoodLife that it was “absolutely not true that Nene has been fired from RHOA” on June 17. He added, “Furthermore, it was made abundantly clear prior that she will always be welcome on the series as long as she wants to be. We are having on-going bigger picture conversations with NBC Universal and have not made any decisions regarding next season specifically. Any speculation or sources trying to create controversy by stating otherwise are incredibly inaccurate. Bloop.”
We also learned that NeNe “wants to be paid what she feels she deserves and she knows her worth,” a source close to the show EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife at the end of July. “But it’s also about receiving support to ensure it’s no longer the work environment where she feels set up and attacked just for good TV.”