Looks like TMZ caught up with Nene Leakes and the reality star shared that she wanted to file this lawsuit years ago, but the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” executives blacklisted her which made it very difficult to file a lawsuit at the time.
Leakes was asked what goal she is striving to accomplish by filing her discrimination lawsuit, and she shared, “the goals are to stop discrimination against black women. That’s just the goal. Nobody wants to go to work every day as a black woman with blonde hair and the head of the corporation call you a white woman. So stop the discrimination that’s the goal.”
The reality star also shared how she felt like it was the right time to file this lawsuit years ago. “I felt it was the right time a couple of years ago, but I was constantly being retaliated against, being blacklisted, not able to work, and being silenced.” The reality star went on to shut down rumors that this lawsuit is coming about now because Nene Leakes didn’t receive her own show. “That doesn’t make any sense we’re talking about discrimination we’re not talking about a show. It has nothing to do with having a temper tantrum and wanting a show. I never wanted my own show, I mean I had many opportunities to have one, but that’s not it. It’s discrimination.”
NeNe Leakes says she wanted to drop the hammer on the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” years ago … but the execs blacklisted her, making it extremely difficult to take any legal action. https://t.co/IPrqTxlY31
— TMZ (@TMZ) May 2, 2022
As we previously reported, Leakes is suing the executives of the show, 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.
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.”
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.
“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.