‘RHOA’ Rumor Alert: Is NeNe Leakes Finally Returning as Full-Time Housewife After Turning Down Lesser Role?

Make room for a Bravo icon. 

Seven years after she left The Real Housewives of Atlanta, NeNe Leakes is ready to reclaim her peach – if the rumors are true. 

Bravo reportedly wants NeNe Leakes back for ‘RHOA’ Season 18 

Bravo has offered NeNe a full-time spot in the RHOA Season 18 cast, according to Reality Blurb. 

“Contracts went out two days ago,” the insider claimed. 

Bravo is reportedly “very interested” in bringing NeNe back to the show. But the network is less keen to continue working with Shamea Morton. The longtime friend of the Housewives became a full-time cast member in season 16, but she allegedly won’t return next season. 

However, a conflicting report from TMZ says that RHOA Season 18 contracts haven’t gone out yet and that NeNe’s return isn’t guaranteed. 

NeNe left RHOA after season 12 in 2019. Soon after, she sued Bravo and producer Andy Cohen, alleging she was the target of racially offensive remarks from fellow cast member Kim Zolciak-Biermann. She dismissed the lawsuit in 2022. 

NeNe later said she decided to walk away from RHOA rather than accept a reduced role going forward. 

“I’m unhappy that I got six episodes. I mean, shouldn’t I get more than six episodes? Like, why is it a phase-out when there’s other girls who are not the same complexion as me and started as an original housewife?” she said in a 2023 interview with Carlos King on Reality With the King (via Deadline). “Why are they being offered 18 episodes, and I am being offered six episodes. What did I do? Because I don’t know anything that I’ve done ever on this show that no other housewife in this franchise have not done. I’ve never done anything that no one else has done.”

In the same interview, NeNe said she no longer had any ill will toward Cohen. 

“I don’t have any hard feelings,” she said on her feelings towards Cohen. “I’m a Sagittarius. So at some point, I may be mad with you, but then I get over it … I hate that we’re in this place. I really wish it was a way for us to find our way back to each other because, you know, life is short and you just don’t want to carry ill feelings for the rest of your life.”

NeNe will appear in ‘RHUGT: Roaring 20th’ 

NeNe’s rumored RHOA return doesn’t come out of nowhere. Earlier this year, Bravo announced that she’d make a cameo appearance in the upcoming season of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th. 

In May, Cohen addressed fan speculation that NeNe might return to RHOA. He declined to confirm the rumors. But he didn’t shut them down, either. 

“We’ve worked so hard to get a cast on Atlanta that is cohesive and makes sense and that we love and the fans love,” he told Vulture. “We want to be at the level that Atlanta used to be, and we are finally there. That’s what I’m focusing on right now.”

Meanwhile, NeNe has stressed that if she ever returned to RHOA, she’d be at the center of the action. 

“I’m not mad at the ‘friend’ role. I just think, answering your question, if I were to ever step back on that platform and would I be a friend, I really feel like, I don’t know that I would be a friend,” she said during a July 2025 appearance on the Humble Brag podcast.

“I like the ‘friend’ role, I like the capacity, I don’t have a problem with it at all,” she added. “I just would think, NeNe, season 1, the first Housewife, and I’m a friend? I don’t know.”

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th premieres August 6 on Bravo. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock. 

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