Producer Carlos King of The Real Housewives of Atlanta shed light on the current discrimination argument between executive producer Andy Cohen and Nene Leakes.
According to the court document, Leakes accuses Bravo, Cohen, NBCUniversal, and the RHOA production business of creating a “workplace culture in which racially-insensitive and inappropriate behavior is accepted, if not, encouraged” (via People). Leakes thinks she is currently being banned in the entertainment industry because she was the victim of “systemic racism” from her RHOA co-stars.
Is there a future for Nene Leakes on ‘RHOA’?
Leakes went hard with her lawsuit, so could there ever be a future again with Bravo? “I think there’s a conversation that needs to be had between Nene and Andy,” King said on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast.
“Andy said recently that after [husband] Greg passed, he did reach out to Nene, and the two exchange pleasantries,” King recalled. But, “He did not want to go into further detail because he said that he didn’t want to say anything that may not be what she wants to talk about.”
“So to me that shows that the door is cracked open a little bit,” he added.
Carlos King says Andy Cohen and Nene Leakes have a lot of love for each other
King believes Leakes and Cohen could someday find common ground. “And on the record, I told Nene, I think at the end of the day, she and Andy should have a personal one-on-one conversation so that he can hear out of her own mouth one-on-one how she feels,” he said.
Cohen and Leakes are dealing with hurt feelings because they have shared a strong bond. “And I said, I can promise you if he hears you and you hear from him cause I know those two very well,” King said about Leakes and Cohen’s connection.
“They love each other so much, like so much,” King insisted. “And I know for a fact how much Nene loved Andy. She would talk about him all the time to me, how much she adored him.”
“And he knows that. Cause I said it to him. I believe that once those two have a one-on-one conversation, all will be right in the world. Because of the stuff that he says to me … I’m like talk to him. Like I think it’s like just have a conversation with him.” King added, “I think it’s so fixable. I really do. I really want them to have a conversation.”
Nene Leakes became bigger than ‘RHOA’
King admitted that Leakes eventually exceeded RHOA in popularity. He said, however, that she had no guidance on how to handle the rapid ascent she had experienced.
“And when people say that Nene thinks she was bigger than the show, I think Nene always felt that yes, her presence on the show was larger than life,” he observed. “And for sure she is the face of that franchise. I think what happened is there is no rule book or no instruction manual that sort of teaches people how to handle that level of fame.”
“But Nene was the star,” he added. “She, in my opinion, and people may argue with me, after the first season of Atlanta Housewives, Nene became the face of Housewives. And I think all of that pressure, does something to someone. And I definitely think it did a number on her.”