NeNe Leakes was noticeably absent during Sunday night’s premiere episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and according to a new report, her failure to appear on the debut episode was no fault of her producers.
On November 4, an insider told Radar Online that while Leakes’ production team would have certainly loved to have included Leakes on the episode, she was refusing to film scenes with some of her co-stars, including Kenya Moore and Porsha Williams, at the time of filming.
“NeNe was furious that Kenya was coming back,” the source explained. “And she was adamant that she didn’t want to spend time on camera with her at the beginning of filming.”
In addition to being absent from the premiere episode of the 12th season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta , Leakes will reportedly be missing from the series’ second episode of the season this Sunday night as well. That said, when it comes to Leakes’ paycheck with Bravo TV, she will allegedly not be missing out on one cent. Reportedly, she’s still getting paid as if she had appeared on each episode of the new season.
“NeNe is getting paid for the first two episodes of RHOA even though she isn’t on the show,” the source revealed. “Bravo didn’t want to punish her because they knew how mad she was about Kenya coming back.”
As fans of The Real Housewives of Atlanta well know, Leakes and Moore have been feuding for years. Leakes was reportedly quite upset to learn that Moore, who appeared on just one episode of Season 11, would be returning to her full-time housewife role on Season 12.
While many seasons of The Real Housewives of Atlanta have seen the women mending their friendships, Season 12 reportedly did not see any such thing for Leakes. As The Inquisitr previously reported, an insider revealed to Radar Online last month that Leakes was still on the outs with a number of her co-stars, including Moore, when production on the series wrapped.
Radar Online also said that because of Leakes and Moore’s ongoing issues with one another, fans of the series should expect to see the women facing off when they film the Season 12 reunion later this year.
As for her relationship with Williams, Leakes was allegedly able to move past their issues after a supposed on-camera make-up.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 12 airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. on Bravo TV.
