NeNe Leakes had the tea overflowing during her first-ever appearance on The Breakfast Club on March 4. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star, 52, revealed that she believes Kevin Hunter was the reason she never got a talk show. The bold claim came [at the 17:44 mark] as hosts, Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee and DJ Envy probed her about her friendship with Hunter’s now ex-wife, Wendy Williams. Wendy and Kevin, a former Wendy Show executive producer, divorced in April after he fathered a child with his longtime mistress.
“Now, I’m not trying to start sh-t, but I remember that you were supposed to have a talk show with Debmar-Mercury, which produces ‘The Wendy Show’ and Wendy and Kev blocked that,” Charlamagne said during Wednesday’s show. “You so crazy,” NeNe interrupted, with a smirk. “I do think so,” she said when asked if she believes if the then-married couple “blocked” her talk show from hitting the air.
“Did you ever ask Wendy about it?” co-host Angela Yee asked NeNe, to which she replied, “No, I don’t think we talked about it.” The Bravo star then clarified, “I think it was her [Wendy’s] husband, yeah. He was never nice to me. I don’t think he ever wanted me to be around, so that’s fine.”
NeNe recalled, “I’m sure he was the person to go and get it stopped, like, ‘It’s either her or Wendy.’ They already had money in Wendy and the show was already on.”
Ultimately, she admitted that the network made the right decision. “In my eyes I would’ve done the same thing,” she said, explaining, “If I know this show is already successful, I would just stick with the show that’s already successful.”
At the end of the day, NeNe’s made peace with her talk show that never was.
“I think that timing was everything and maybe it wasn’t my time, I don’t know,” she said, noting that she’s never tried to have a conversation with Wendy about it. “I don’t ever talk to her about it, but I’m not opposed to talking to Wendy about nothing, honestly.”
When asked if she was hurt over the situation, NeNe said, “No, it didn’t hurt my feelings” because, “at that time in my life, I think it really taught me how the industry is. It’s a dirty world.” NeNe added that she forgave Wendy because they weren’t that close at the time.
Charlamagne also suggested that Wendy can still make things “good again” after she cost NeNe some “money, man.”
As for NeNe’s reply? — “Things happen… Sometimes, people are intimidated and they think you’re going to come up and do a little bit more than they did,” she said, confirming, “But, it was scrapped, that’s true.”
Now, the situation is just “old news” to NeNe said. “I don’t care about it anymore. I’ve moved on, she’s moved on, she’s not with Kev anymore. I thought he was toxic for her,” she said. NeNe, who’s known Wendy for about 13 years, went on to admit that she never thought Kevin was “good” for Wendy.