Looks like the former star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta NeNe Leakes sued the corporations behind the show on Wednesday, claiming that they fostered and tolerated a hostile and racist work environment.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta reveals Leakes, argued to executives about years of racist comments from fellow housewife Kim Zolciak-Biermann, who is white, but that only Leakes endured consequences.
“NBC, Bravo, and True foster a corporate and workplace culture in which racially-insensitive and inappropriate behavior is tolerated – if not, encouraged,” the suit reads.
Emails sent to representatives of the defendant’s ants and Zolciak-Biermann pursuing comment were not instantly returned.
It declares that during the first season, which was released in 2008, the cast was intending to visit a cookout, and housewife Kim Zolciak-Biermann reacted to the idea with “words to the effect of: ‘I don’t want to sit around with NeNe and eat chicken.’” The suit says the statement “perpetuated an offensive stereotype about African-Americans.”
Andy Vermaut shares:‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta’ Star NeNe Leakes Files Lawsuit Claiming Hostile, Racist Environment On Show: NeNe Leakes, a former star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta reality show, has filed a lawsuit claiming its… https://t.co/37OCS1FS9F Thankyou. pic.twitter.com/bHFPiwj3mZ
— Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) April 21, 2022
Kim at home like why I gotta be in it😂#RHOA #neneleakes #andycohen #bravotv pic.twitter.com/TOrhs8CrOy
— Porterhouse1974 (@Porterhouse1974) April 21, 2022
The suit reads that in 2012 during the fifth season, Zolciak-Biermann made “racially offensive and stereotypical” statements about the new home of housewife Kandi Burruss, calling her neighborhood a “ghetto” and immortalizing a racial stereotype in a horrible comment about whether Burruss needed a swimming pool.
That same year, the suit says, Zolciak-Biermann used the N-word to refer to Leakes and other of the housewives after a conflict with them, the suit claims. It also alleges Zolciak-Biermann falsely suggested that Leakes used drugs and called her home a “roach nest.”
I’ll leave your posts, but a woman saying her and Andy Cohen need to have a talk (said this back in October), and she’d be open to return, to now suing them after Andy ghosted her scream of desperation. In her famous words, Bye Wig!!!
— … (@Rhyzen__p) April 21, 2022
The suit says after Leake’s complaints to the executives supervising the show, they “did not terminate their relationship with Zolciak-Biermann, nor take any other meaningful action to put an end to her racially-offensive behavior,” and if anything awarded her by giving her a spinoff show.
“From the day the series began filming, NeNe was the target of systemic racism from co-star Kim Zolciak-Biermann, which was tolerated by Bravo executive producer Andy Cohen and other executives,” Leakes’ lawyer David deRubertis said in a statement.
Joe Habachy, another Leakes’ attorney, said via email that “not a day goes by that NeNe doesn’t wake up with an onslaught of overwhelming emotions as a direct result of these unfortunate and avoidable occurrences.”