However, that is to not say there wasn’t some fact to the rumors. On the newest episode of the Housewife-led podcast Humble Brag with Crystal Kung Minkoff and Cynthia Bailey, the fact legend mentioned she was requested and she or he was “actually enthusiastic about doing it.”

Sadly, life had different plans. “I couldn’t do Traitors as a result of my son is within the hospital, and he’s nonetheless within the hospital,” she defined to the listeners. “My son’s been within the hospital since Might”

NeNe’s son Brentt suffered a stroke and congestive coronary heart failure in 2022, as detailed by Us Weekly. In July 2024, Brentt obtained a coronary heart transplant and started an extended highway to restoration, which he shared along with his personal followers on Instagram.

Three months after the surgical procedure, Brentt posted that he “needed to relearn easy methods to stroll and talk.” Now, NeNe says that his physique “began rejecting” his transplanted coronary heart, which landed him again within the hospital to “cease the rejection.”

Nevertheless, she did share that there are optimistic indicators of progress for Brentt, with the 26-year-old now having “turned a curve,” although he nonetheless “has a short while longer to recuperate.”

Initially, NeNe mentioned that she thought the manufacturing dates for The Traitors may work together with her son’s restoration, however she was nonetheless nervous. “My concern was committing after which having to return to them and say, I can not do it. In order that was by no means going to work,” she shared. “Brentt was very sick. It was no method I may have dedicated to it.”

All of that meant that NeNe wasn’t ready to depart the nation and spend nonetheless lengthy it takes to try to suss out all these pesky “traitors” — or be one herself (which might be unbelievable!). If she was on the quick listing for Season 4, although, we suspect that invitation will nonetheless be there when she is prepared and accessible.

And it feels like she is, as she added that if Brentt had been the place he is at now at the moment, she’d have gone. “We will FaceTime. He is speaking. He wasn’t strolling on the time,” she mentioned. “Now he is strolling, he is speaking.”

Had she made it, NeNe might need been in a position to crew up with a number of different Housewives as the ultimate solid consists of 5 of them: Porsha Williams (Atlanta), Caroline Stanbury (Dubai), Candiace Dillard Bassett (Potomac), Lisa Rinna (Beverly Hills), and Dorinda Medley (New York Metropolis)

Elsewhere within the podcast, NeNe was additionally requested about probably returning to the fact franchise that made her right into a family title. In January, she’d expressed the potential of being open to a RHOA return, however it does not seem to be she loves the concept of doing it as a “good friend.”

“I am not mad on the ‘good friend’ position,” she instructed Bailey and Minkoff, “I simply suppose, if I had been to ever step again on that platform and would I be a good friend, I actually really feel like, I do not know that I might be a good friend.”

Bailey, although, is at present showing as simply that on Season 16, and so she pressed her good friend in regards to the concept. NeNe mentioned she “must take a look at it,” expressing combined emotions in regards to the concept.

“I just like the ‘good friend’ position, I just like the capability, I haven’t got an issue with it in any respect,” she admitted. So the issue, then? “I simply would suppose, NeNe, season 1, the primary Housewife, and I am a good friend? I do not know.”

NeNe was among the many first 5 girls to launch the third Actual Housewives present, and the primary to characteristic predominantly Black leads. Due to her fiery and larger-than-life character, she shortly turned the breakout star.

After a short lived hiatus following her “visitor” appearances in Season 8, NeNe returned full-time for Seasons 10 via 12, earlier than once more making her exit — and this time for good … or at the very least, up to now.

She did sue Bravo and Cohen alleging each racism and a hostile work surroundings, calling Cohen a “grasp manipulator” and accusing the community of utilizing her “for scores like they’ve at all times accomplished,” per Leisure Weekly. 4 months later, although, she dropped the go well with.

Based mostly on her feedback in January, it looks like issues might have thawed much more if she’s expressed a willingness to even speak about returning to RHOA.

Not one of the OG stars of RHOA are nonetheless among the many solid in Season 16, however there are nonetheless loads of girls that NeNe starred alongside in her years with the franchise, together with Bailey, Phaedra Parks, Kenya Moore, and Porsha Williams.

Whether or not its as a part of the Actual Housewives franchise in Atlanta or in Scotland amongst The Traitors or some other myriad alternatives, wherever NeNe Leakes goes, her legions of followers will observe as a result of they know she brings it each single time.