NeNe Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta is one of the most interesting figures on the entire Real Housewives franchise. Her no-nonsense approach to her problems has often been applauded by her fans and NeNe has managed to acquire a rather large, steady follower count over the years.
But every reality TV star has their bad days and when one is living their life on camera, things are bound to get messy. NeNe too has had some moments when fans had to disagree with her views and behaviors. But then again, some of NeNe’s realistic stances have found a lot of love from her fans. Here are just a few times NeNe left fans cold and a few times she was supported by them:
Didn’t Support Her: When She Judged Kim’s Love Life
Was NeNe’s infamous ‘close your legs to married men’ outburst really justified? Fans think not. The first-ever reunion of the show had NeNe Leakes and Kim Zolciak-Biermann going against each other and it became obvious that these two had a lot of issues brewing between them.
In the first season, Kim was dating a mystery man whose face wasn’t shown on camera but who lavished her with expensive jewelry. During the reunion, NeNe alleged that Kim’s secret boyfriend was married. Kim refuted the claims and wanted some space to explain herself, but NeNe had simply drawn her own conclusions.
Did Support Her: When She Joked About Cynthia’s Friend Contract
One of NeNe’s many talents is being unabashedly real and truthful about how she feels; this trait wins her a lot of allies because people appreciate her transparency. But NeNe was totally dumbfounded when Cynthia presented her with a ‘friend contract,’ which was childish and quite ridiculous for two adult friends.
This wasn’t even an elaborate, quirky legal document like the roommate agreement between Sheldon and Leonard on The Big Bang Theory, but something that Cynthia had printed out on plain paper with 3 or 4 ‘tick you box’ style questions. NeNe of course laughed at this, and fans had her back on this one.
Didn’t Support Her: When She Criticized Phaedra’s Looks
NeNe pulled the ‘you’re not interesting enough to look at’ way before Kim Kardashian used it on her sister Kourtney. Before NeNe and Phaedra were close as friends, NeNe didn't quite think Phaedra was Real Housewives material. In season 1, during a party NeNe actually brings Phaedra’s ‘fabulosity’ into question.
“I don’t know Phaedra that well but what I’ve seen of her, I haven’t ever seen ‘fabulous.’ I see plain Jane. If we talk about ‘fabulosity’ I just don’t see it,” NeNe had said. Even during when the season originally aired fans couldn’t bring themselves to support Nene for judging someone’s appearance based on their clothes or hair. To make matter worse, she was also rude to Phaedra and made no effort to hide her disdain.
Did Support Her: Whenever She Successfully Disengaged
NeNe’s contribution to making the act of disengagement a functional social tactic, cannot be ignored. Whenever NeNe is in a fight and she feels the other person isn't giving her room to justify her stance or share her opinion, she simply disengages and physically leaves the room.
This is something fans have applauded her for, especially since she has done it quite a few times since Season 5. For instance, when NeNe and Sheree had the big fight at the wine cellar, NeNe simply chose to exit the fight because she could sense how meaningless it was and that neither of them were in the mind space to have a productive conversation.
Didn’t Support Her: During The Donations Fiasco
Fans of the show weren’t okay with how NeNe and Kenya had both made false promises about making donations since it came across as opportunistic. In the super dramatic season 6 finale, NeNe pledged to donate $20,000 to Detroit Public Schools Foundation in an attempt to make up for her rude behavior at one of Kenya’s charity events and also asked Kenya to match her donation.
But in the next year’s reunion, NeNe revealed that she had not donated the money yet. Fans agreed that this was not a great move.
Did Support Her: When She Was Shamed For Being A Stripper
When Claudia shamed NeNe for being a stripper in the past, Nene’s fans immediately came to her rescue. Firstly, the stripper jibe was obviously uncalled for, since the fight was mainly about professional credibility and finances. But what made things worse was that Claudia’s remark was completely inappropriate because NeNe has often talked about how she had started stripping as a young single parent to take care of her child.
She also had no qualms about earning an honest wage. So, Claudia’s attempt to defame her by labeling her as a stripper and implying that she never went to college was really thoughtless.
Didn’t Support Her: When She Blasted Kenya At Her House Party
NeNe was incredibly rude to Kenya when she arrived slightly late at the slumber party at Nene’s home in season 6. NeNe had clearly planned to hash out some stuff with her during the course of the night and greeted Kenya rather gruffly.
Since Kenya didn’t know why exactly NeNe was behaving this way, she was thrown off guard. Fans didn’t agree with NeNe’s behavior especially because Kenya explained why she was late but NeNe continued her tirades against Kenya. It was also pointed out by viewers that NeNe was the host and she made Kenya incredibly uncomfortable with her hostile welcome, especially since she asked her to leave once during the fight.
Did Support Her: When Kenya Accused Her Of Flirting With Peter
During the season 7 reunion, Kenya made things really awkward when she accused NeNe of flirting with Cynthia’s husband Peter. NeNe's husband Greg, along with Cynthia and Peter were all present at the show and this was clearly a really off-the-cuff remark on Kenya's part, especially because she couldn’t show any proof of what she was accusing NeNe of.
Fans pointed out that if NeNe had indeed made moves on Peter and Kenya knew about it, she could directly ask Peter and not ‘falsely’ accuse NeNe, especially since NeNe denied outright having flirted with Peter.
Didn't Support Her: When She Implied Kenya’s Marriage Was Fake
In season 12 NeNe threw some major dirt at Kenya when she revealed in a phone call to her friend Wendy Williams that she thinks Kenya’s marriage was a sham because no one saw her wedding license. “Kenya's marriage license has never, ever been found, by no one. She ain't J. Lo. She ain't Beyoncé. And they found their marriage license, but they can't find hers. They aren't legally married, so there's nothing to divorce. How about that?" NeNe said.
Fans were quick to criticize NeNe because she was not just rude, but also disrespectful considering Kenya and her ex Marc Daly share a child together who they have decided to co-parent. NeNe didn’t stop herself even after being cautioned by Wendy.
Did Support Her: When NeNe Cleared The Rumors About Kenya’s Mystery Boyfriend
There was a lot of speculation about Kenya’s secret boyfriend who she claimed was African royalty, however, there was no proof of this anywhere and Kenya didn’t even introduce him to her friends properly. It didn’t help that she misled people about NeNe meeting him because NeNe literally stumbled into him briefly, and had only a short, very puzzling, exchange, and NeNe eventually came clean about the incident at the reunion.
Kenya blamed NeNe for being rude to her boyfriend which was quite unfair especially since NeNe explained that he was a stranger to her. Fans supported NeNe on this, especially because Kenya was clearly keeping her friends in the dark about her boyfriend and only giving out partial details. It wasn’t NeNe’s fault that she was confused.