The 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' star sounds off on her co-star, including their upcoming 'spitgate' moment and more.
NeNe Leakes is saying a big no-no to Kenya Moore.
"That girl is crazy," NeNe tells ET of her Real Housewives of Atlanta co-star. "Something is really wrong with her. No, seriously."
ET's Lauren Zima sat down with the Housewives icon when she guest-hosted the show on Tuesday, just two days after Andy Cohen confronted Kenya on Watch What Happens Live over her claim that NeNe was being "phased out" of RHOA, a comment Kenya actually made in a recent ET interview. Andy brought up the comments after NeNe herself tweeted into the show, asking him to press Kenya on the allegation.
"How does she know? I mean, does she... is she in production?" NeNe asks. "I don't know. I don't know why she says the things that she says, but what I do know is, for whatever reason -- I don't know how it sounds, I don't know if it's great to even say -- but I think that she would love for me to be gone, so she could be, in her mind, the head of the show, or the queen of the show, or the one that everyone is talking about. With me there, it's very difficult for her to have that kind of thing. So, I also think that, if I leave the show and Kenya stays on the show, she will be the demise of the show."
"If it was my time to go, I absolutely have no problem with that, because the show has been good to me," NeNe adds. "I've been there since day one, and I opened up this door so that Kenya 'Big Mouth' Moore could walk through it, OK?"
"I think sometimes when you're that personality, that's powerful -- like me, you've been there since day one -- I feel like I'm a threat to certain girls," NeNe goes on to offer. "I don't know why, because I personally think that everybody has their own lane. The problem is, don't you cross over in my lane. Stay over there. We don't want to have a car crash! Stay in your lane, girl."
NeNe and Kenya, essentially, have the same review of one another, both claiming that the other has no place in "the group."
"She's a nasty girl," NeNe scoffs. "Her attitude is nasty. She's not a cool girl. None of the girls -- she tries to say none of the girls like me. None of them like her! I mean, her attitude is stank."
NeNe says she attempted to "smooth it over" with Kenya "several times," but the former Miss USA was never receptive to it. Kenya told ET it’s because she doesn’t think that NeNe's olive branches were genuine; NeNe has a different idea.
"You know, I'm not gonna back down, girl, I'm not gonna back down," she says. "And I think that's what [Kenya] knows, so she knows she can get some drama from me, 'cause I'm not gonna back down. I don't mind -- I don't want to argue every day. I'm on a spiritual journey. I have someone who's guiding me a lot, and has helped me a lot. I don't want to bicker every day with these girls. And I always feel like, no matter what I do, it's very hard for them to forgive. But, they forgive each other in five seconds, all the time. And they've done worse things to each other than I've ever done to them."
"Kenya, I've never had a friendship with her," she adds. "I've never had a friendship with her. She's always come around and wanted to bicker with me, and I think she wanted to bicker with me because it looks good in the press."
More of that "bickering" will play out in the back half of season 12, including a much-teased moment in which NeNe appears to spit at or on Kenya.
"I don't even know what was going through my mind in that moment, but what I do know is, I didn't spit on her -- but I sorta, kinda wish I had," NeNe says. "I'm just gonna be honest about that, because I just think some of the things Kenya says is really nasty and really dirty. And I just feel like, girl, you are just -- you probably need to be spit on. You just probably need to be. And it may not sound great, but she probably needs to be spit on. And I have no sympathy for her. I just don't."
NeNe says she did the "act of" spitting, but didn’t actually spit at her co-star. Kenya, however, claims that NeNe did, in fact, spit on her.
"Of course she wanted to run with it, and that's fine by me," NeNe replies. "I don't care, girl. Run with it -- I only wish I had spit on you, girl."
NeNe has yet to make a decision about her future on Housewives -- and the network doesn’t make casting decisions until after a season has fully wrapped, reunion included -- but she does note that she doesn't "want to continue to be in a setting where I feel like they're being very malicious towards me."
"Everybody's human on this show, and everybody makes mistakes -- and I feel like I've definitely made mistakes, but I also feel like my mistakes are forgivable, and if they can forgive each other, I don't see why they can't forgive me for any little thing," she laments. "And the whole thing that they're trying to hold against me is last year. Last year, my husband had cancer, and I was his caretaker. I dealt with so much last year, and I feel like I don't get a break for that, or I don't get any sympathy for that, because I'm NeNe. We never had cancer in our home before. And everyone is like, 'Well, last year...' Girl, last year, I don't even know who I was last year. Like, I went through so much last year."
The demise of NeNe’s friendship with longtime co-star Cynthia Bailey was wrapped up in that last year. On Sunday's episode, fans saw as Cynthia and NeNe reconciled -- but NeNe cautions, they will never be the friends they once were.
"We will never be the same," she shares. "But, I think that we are better now -- we can be in the same setting, we can laugh, we can talk, that kinda stuff. But, as far as, hanging out, calling each other like we used to, that will never happen again."
NeNe admits she’s not interested in returning to the "Friendship Contract" days with Cynthia, and confesses that she does not think their friendship can survive "being on a show together."
For now, NeNe is focused on the positive. That includes her women's entrepreneur group, Ladies of Success, and her Ladies Night Out comedy tour.
"I went out on my own comedy tour by myself, but I'm not a comic -- I just like to laugh and talk trash," NeNe quips. "I love to talk trash, and it's all coming from a good place! So, I went to my agent and I said, 'I'd love to produce an all-female comedy tour.' And they worked with me and I produced this show of amazing women, Loni Love, Sherri Shepherd, Adele Givens, B Simone, Kym Whitley, and I host the show. So, I come in and out of each comic. These girls are fabulous, they're amazing."
"And this is an ensemble," she adds. "You do see, these are all women. We've never had an issue before, ever. Everybody is super professional. Everyone is at work, they do their job, they enjoy their job. That other cast, I mean... I don't know."
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Tickets to NeNe’s comedy tour are available now at LadiesNightOutComedyTour.com. Watch ET's full chat with NeNe below.
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