NeNe Leakes claims she's faced professional repercussions for standing up for herself amid conditions she described as discriminatory on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Leakes, 54, spoke Monday with TMZ in Los Angeles about the lawsuit she filed last month against Real Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen, 53, Bravo and NBCUniversal, as she claimed they oversaw a hostile and racist workplace.
'Yes, I’ve been blacklisted - when you haven’t worked in three years when all of a sudden you’re working and sought after, and suddenly you’re not working, it’s being blacklisted,' Leakes said. 'I haven’t caused any problems on any set, everybody I’ve ever worked with I had a good working relationship with, except for this group of people.'
The latest: NeNe Leakes, 54, says she's faced professional repercussions for standing up for herself amid conditions she described as discriminatory. She was snapped in 2019 in Atlanta
Leakes, who is Black, also named True Entertainment and Truly Original (as well as executives from the companies) in her suit filed in Atlanta federal court, according to the Associated Press.
She said that she was punished for reporting hearing racist remarks from white RHOA co-star Kim Zolciak-Biermann, 43, to higher-ups with the companies.
The reality star, whose full name is Linnethia Monique Leakes, told TMZ on Monday that the goal of the lawsuit is 'to stop discrimination against Black women.
'Nobody wants to go to work everyday as a Black woman with blonde hair and the head of the corporation calls you a white woman.'
The reality star, whose full name is Linnethia Monique Leakes, told TMZ on Monday that the goal of the lawsuit is 'to stop discrimination against Black women'
Leakes last month filed a lawsuit in an Atlanta federal court, saying that the companies that produced RHOA oversaw a hostile and racist workplace. She was snapped in NYC in 2019
She continued: 'A white man shouldn’t say to a Black woman, "You’re a white women because you’re wearing your hair blonde," as if it belongs to a certain ethnic group, to a certain people, that’s not right. And it’s just more than that, it’s discrimination.'
When asked about the timing of the the lawsuit, which she filed last month, Leakes said it was the result of years of professional sabotage against her that paved the path to the courtroom.
'I felt like it was the right time a couple years ago, a few years ago, but I was constantly being retaliated against, being blacklisted, not able to work; being silenced and so, you know it was difficult to do,' she said.
Leakes said online speculation that she filed the suit because she was not able to get her own show was 'so small,' 'so ridiculous' and 'doesn’t make any sense.
'We’re talking about discrimination, we're not talking about a show,' she said. 'It has nothing to do with having a temper tantrum and wanting a show, I never wanted my own show, I had many opportunities to have one, I did, that’s not it - it’s discrimination, that's what it is.'
Leakes named Real Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen, 53, among the defendants in her lawsuit
Leakes said the companies she named in the suit - including Bravo and NBCUniversal - were in violation of federal employment and anti-discrimination laws, requesting that damages be determined in a trial
Asked about potential compensation she's seeking in the lawsuit, Leakes said, 'I can’t speak on that.'
In legal docs filed last month, Leakes' legal team said that 'NBC, Bravo and True foster a corporate and workplace culture in which racially-insensitive and inappropriate behavior is tolerated – if not, encouraged.'
Leakes appeared on 214 total episodes on the Georgia-based reality series from 2008 and 2020, according to iMDb.
She was a regular on the show
