Cynthia Bailey says NeNe Leakes should never return to ‘RHOA’
Bailey shaded her former castmate while appearing on 'The Wendy Williams Show'
Cynthia Bailey appeared on Thursday’s episode of The Wendy Williams Show and addressed rumors about a cast shakeup on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
The 54-year-old reality star/supermodel also talked about potentially not returning to the hit Bravo series, when Williams said jokingly it’s Bailey that should be fired.
“There’s nothing more exciting that you can give to us. I don’t want to see you fight. I don’t want to see you get divorced. Like, I think that it’s time,” Williams explains. “The only thing then is what will you do for a paycheck? But I was thinking, ‘This is still a model, just like Christie Brinkley!’ You can model.”
Watch the moment via the Instagram clip below.
But according to Bailey, the reality gig is the one she prefers.
“I love The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” Bailey replies. “This platform has been amazing. I have an amazing relationship with the network. Bravo has been good to me.”
“Here’s the thing,” she continues, “nobody really wants to be fired. I mean, my first job was Taco Bell. I wouldn’t want to be fired from there. I would want the option to leave if I wanted to go. God’s will, not my will, will be done. I have had an amazing run. It’s been 11 amazing years as a consistent peach-holder.”
Bailey, who was on Wendy’s show to raise awareness for breast cancer screenings, also made time to shade her former co-star NeNe Leakes, who, while she didn’t say her name directly, she says is the one who should never come back to the show.
“The person who wants me to be fired all the time, who actually isn’t even on the show anymore. Her name rhymes with ‘meanie,'” Bailey said.
Leakes has made it very clear that RHOA is not the same without her. As previously reported by theGrio, in an interview with Jason Lee on Hollywood Unlocked Uncensored, the former housewife who left after 13 seasons, compared her absence to the fate of the R&B group Destiny’s Child without Beyoncé.
“It’s kind of hard to have the group Destiny’s Child and take Beyoncé out and still think you have Destiny’s Child. It’s kind of difficult to do that. You know what I mean? It’s kind of like, No…no. I want Beyoncé.”
Leakes added “It’s very difficult to go to the burger place down the street and think you’re going to get a Happy Meal. I mean, McDonald’s started the Happy Meal.”
“It’s very hard to, in a very nice way, go somewhere and think that you can fill the shoes of something that someone started,” she continued.
Leakes announced her departure from the series after “an extremely long, exhausting, tiring, emotional negotiation” behind the scenes, according to Entertainment Weekly. She also publicly slammed Bravo producer Andy Cohen, calling him “racist” and a “master manipulator” in a series of tweets.
Bravo has not yet released casting details ahead of season 14, but Bailey will appear in the Real Housewives vacation mash-up series, set to premiere on Peacock.
The series was filmed in Turks and Caicos with The Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga, The Real Housewives of New York City‘s Ramona Singer and Luann de Lesseps, The Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Cynthia Bailey and Kenya Moore, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Kyle Richards, BravoTV.com reports.
The premiere date has not been announced yet.
This story contains additional reporting from Ashley Terrell.
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