Bravo Reacts to NeNe Leakes' RHOA Exit: 'Maybe One Day She'll Hold the Peach Again'

"I have made the very hard and difficult decision to not be a part of Real Housewives of Atlanta season 13," NeNe Leakes announced

Published on September 17, 2020 08:30 PM

Bravo is wishing NeNe Leakes nothing but the best after she announced her departure from The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

In a video posted to her YouTube channel on Thursday, the reality star, 52, revealed that she will not be returning to the hit Bravo series for its upcoming 13th season.

Following news of her exit, a rep for Bravo said in a statement to PEOPLE: "We wish Nene all the best in her future endeavors and thank her for sharing her journey for over a decade with the fans of The Real Housewives of Atlanta."

The network also hinted that the door may be open to her returning in the future.

"She's been instrumental since the start and will truly be missed, and maybe one day she'll hold the peach again," the statement concluded.

In her video — titled "Listen Closely, I got something to tell you!" — Leakes began by thanking fans "that have been showing me a lot of love and support as of late. I feel you, I hear you."

"I have been on an extremely, extremely long, exhausting, tiring, emotional negotiation. There has been a lot of emotion flying on both sides," she said. "It has been hard, and I have made the very hard and difficult decision to not be a part of Real Housewives of Atlanta season 13."

"It wasn't an easy decision for me," she continued. "It was hard. I started on The Real Housewives of Atlanta in 2008. We took off like a rocket. I mean, we took off. You could have never told me that I would start on this little show and it still be going strong 13, 14 years later. And it is. I'm just so happy that I can say that I was a part of a genre that opened up doors for Black ensemble reality shows to step up and be a part of what we all now love so much, reality TV."

Leakes thanked fans, Bravo, the cast and her team for supporting her over the years. She also addressed a false report of someone on her team releasing a statement on her behalf last week. "I had no knowledge of it and I did not approve it," she said.

She ended her message by promising, "I will see you again. Real soon."

Rumors of her departure had been flying all summer. However, her manager, Steven Grossman, insisted in a statement to PEOPLE on June 18 that she was still in talks to return for season 13.

"It is absolutely not true that Nene has been fired from RHOA," Grossman said then. "Furthermore, it was made abundantly clear prior that she will always be welcome on the series as long as she wants to be."

Grossman said at the time that they were "having on-going bigger picture conversations with NBC Universal and have not made any decisions regarding next season specifically. Any speculation or sources trying to create controversy by stating otherwise are incredibly inaccurate. Bloop."

In January, Leakes' friend, Wendy Williams, made headlines when she claimed on her talk show that Leakes was quitting RHOA. Leakes later denied that was true, but admitted that she was still debating it.

"I don't know. I just don't know," Leakes told PEOPLE in May. "I got back and forth with it every day. I feel like it's a big conversation I need to have with the network and with production. Because if they value their talent in some sort of way, then we need to talk. We need to come up with some sort of compromise here."

The latest season of RHOA was particularly tough on the OG Housewife as she feuded with nearly every full-time castmate, including Cynthia Bailey, Porsha Williams, Eva Marcille, Kandi Burruss and longtime rival Kenya Moore.

In the three-part reunion, which was filmed virtually, Leakes got into such vicious fights with Marcille and Burruss that she closed her laptop and walked away.

Lakes previously left the longtime Bravo series after season 7 to focus on her television roles (Glee, The New Normal, E!’s Fashion Police). While she later appeared as a guest for season 8, she skipped season 9 all together before returning full-time in season 10.

Additional reporting by

Jodi Guglielmi