Kenya Moore is moving forward with her life after leaving “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” (RHOA). On June 26, the former Miss USA and actress shared a series of photos on social media featuring her 5-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, enjoying the sun, sand, and clear-blue waters of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In the caption, Moore, 53, acknowledged her departure from season 16 of the Bravo reality series and expressed gratitude to her fans for their unwavering support.
“My heart is full and my conscience is clear,” Moore wrote. “My life is blessed. My daughter and I will continue to thrive in a non-toxic environment where we feel appreciated and most importantly, protected.” She added, “Thank you God for covering us 🙏🏾,” and in her Instagram Story, she wrote, “You can try to destroy a legacy, but you will never destroy a Queen.”
Moore’s exit from the show followed a temporary suspension from filming after she allegedly showed explicit photos of new cast member Brittany Eady during a group event on June 6. A source told PEOPLE that Moore was retaliating against Eady, sharing the photos after the podcast host allegedly used the word “gun” to threaten a co-star. However, a second source close to production refuted this, stating that “At no time was Kenya ever threatened with a weapon, nor was there ever a weapon present during the course of production.”
Kenya Moore recently opened up about the cast shakeup that “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” is undergoing amid an extended hiatus of the Bravo reality series. While making an appearance on the Tamron Hall Show to promote her Lifetime movie “Abducted off the Street: The Carlesha Gaither Story,” Moore was asked about the prolonged hiatus that led Kandi Burruss to announce her exit from the show after 14 seasons.
“They were thinking about, after last season, recasting the show, figuring it out and it’s just taken forever,” Moore told Hall. “And so, we started making moves. She started doing other projects, I started doing this project. I’m working on Kenya Moore Hair Care… I opened a hair salon in Atlanta [and] I started focusing on other things.”
Moore expressed confidence in Burruss’s future, saying, “She is that girl.” Bravo has not commented on casting for RHOA Season 16, and Moore doesn’t know if she’s coming back as “they haven’t made any final decisions.” She teased, “I think they will be announcing that shortly. For me, I am just focusing on the new for Kenya Moore.”
During the conversation, Hall also asked about the possibility of Nene Leakes returning to the franchise. Moore responded, “I don’t know, I can’t answer that. That question has been asked a lot of times but according to our boss, that door is closed. But you know, you never know.”
Leakes ended her tenure on RHOA after Season 12 amid a contract dispute and later sued Bravo for creating a toxic work environment, which she later dropped. In August 2023, Leakes said she had no hard feelings against executive producer Andy Cohen and was open to returning to the franchise.
Kenya Moore is also open to once again sharing a screen with her former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” co-star Porsha Williams. Though the “frenemies” have often sparred on the Bravo reality series, Moore acknowledges the impact of their highly entertaining chemistry. “I think we made great TV together. You know, I think we’re the best frenemies. Some of the best times on that show have been created with me and Porsha,” Moore shared in an exclusive interview with Page Six.
Williams, 42, made the “difficult decision” to quit the show in September 2021 ahead of Season 14 after a decade on the program. Since then, the civil rights activist has gotten married to Nigerian businessman Simon Guobadia in November 2022.
Moore added that casting for Season 16 is almost “finalized.” She predicts the process will be complete “within the next 30 days” and that filming will begin in the spring. “I think they’re 100 percent focused on creating a dynamic new cast with some oldies and some newbies,” she teased. “So we’ll see. We’ll see. Season 16 might just be as sweet as you want it to be.”
While Moore is holding out hope for Williams’ return, she can’t say the same for series OG NeNe Leakes, who filed a racism and discrimination lawsuit against the Bravo network, executive producer Andy Cohen, and others in April 2022. Though she dropped the suit four months later, Moore is certain Leakes, 56 — who exited the program in September 2020 ahead of Season 13 — sealed her fate. “I pretty much know the door is closed on NeNe,” Moore stated. “You know, I think Andy has said it out of his own mouth that, you know, he’s going to keep her name out of his mouth. So I think I have to say that’s not a possibility.”
Our chat with Moore preceded the news that Kandi Burruss would not be returning to “RHOA” after starring on the show for a record-breaking 14 years. “I decided I’m not coming back this year,” Burruss revealed on the 2024 Grammy Awards red carpet. “It’s been 14 seasons, and they allowed us to sit around for a little too long,” she said of the unusually lengthy hiatus between Season 15, which concluded in September 2023, and Season 16 amid reports of a major cast shakeup.
“But during that time, I had started working on a lot of other things, and I got some nice big projects coming soon, so I’m super excited about those things.”
The Season 15 cast starred Burruss, Moore, Drew Sidora, Shereé Whitfield, Marlo Hampton, and Sanya Richards-Ross.
Source: PEOPLE, Page Six
