NeNe Leakes appears to have officially closed the door on The Real Housewives of Atlanta — and this time, she’s leaving little room for interpretation.
During a recent appearance as guest host on Atlanta’s V-103 Big Tigger Morning Show with Francesca Amiker, the original RHOA star was asked about returning to the franchise full-time. She shut it down.
NeNe Leakes on Returning to RHOA: ‘That’s Not Where I Want To Be’
“That’s not where I wanna be,” Leakes said. She added that she doesn’t see herself ever coming back and doesn’t want to be part of “that.” She described herself as healed from the chapter and made it clear a full-time peach is not in her plans.
The comments come after months of speculation. Leakes, who left the show after Season 12 in 2020 following a bitter contract fight, later sued Bravo and Andy Cohen, alleging a hostile and racially insensitive work environment. The suit was dropped. In 2026 she returned to the Bravo universe for The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th, the franchise’s 20th-anniversary all-star trip — a limited appearance that fans treated as a possible first step back. It wasn’t.
Andy Cohen has said the current RHOA lineup is “pretty stacked” and that the network is focused on the group already in place. Rumors that Leakes was being offered a Season 18 contract circulated earlier this year; Cohen publicly called similar reports untrue.
Leakes has long said that if she ever returned, it would not be as a “friend of.” In this interview she went further: she doesn’t want the main-cast role either.
On Shamea Morton and the state of RHOA marriages
Hosts also asked whether Shamea Morton should leave the show. Leakes was cautious but pointed.
“I don’t see it being positive in her marriage,” she said. She noted how few intact marriages remain on the franchise and added that she couldn’t tell Shamea what to do — but she clearly sees the cost. “Where are the marriages?” she asked.
On dating in Atlanta and keeping her relationship private
Leakes also talked about her personal life and her boyfriend, Nyonisela Sioh (often called Nyoni), whom she has been seen with publicly in recent months.
“People in Atlanta don’t respect relationships,” she said. She described dating as on-and-off in the city, said she had rarely gone public with anyone before, and made it clear she prefers to keep this relationship private.
Why this lands differently
Leakes is still one of the most important figures the Housewives franchise ever produced. RHOA became Bravo’s flagship in large part because of her. The tension of the last six years — the exit, the lawsuit, the slow thaw, the Girls Trip cameo, the return rumors — made every interview feel like it might be the one where she said yes.
This time she said no.
Some fans heard self-protection. Others heard unfinished business. A few replies to the original clip argued the show is still the platform that made her, and that walking away for good is leaving money and cultural real estate on the table. Others said she’s earned the right to stop giving the franchise her energy.
Leakes has other lanes: her own interviews and YouTube show, acting, business, and the limited Bravo reunion she already did. For now, she’s treating RHOA as a closed chapter.
Whether Bravo ever tries again is another question. Based on what she said on V-103, the answer from her side is already in.
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