A tough road. NeNe Leakes opened up about her husband Gregg Leakes’ ongoing cancer battle, revealing that his previously diagnosed stage III colon cancer has returned.
“He’s been in the hospital for a week, tomorrow,” NeNe, 53, told The Jasmine Brand during a Monday, June 28, Instagram Live. “I’m sure he’ll be home in about a week or so. He had to have a surgery.”
After noting that she hadn’t yet spoken about 66-year-old Gregg’s cancer recurrence, the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum said that the battle is “difficult.” She also noted that her husband seems “super small” these days.
“If you’ve ever been around somebody who’s had cancer before, he’s different. He’s different,” she said.
The Leakes wed in 1997. Following their split in 2011, they remarried in June 2013. Five years later, NeNe revealed Gregg’s original stage III colon cancer diagnosis.
“Our New Normal and the fight begins👊🏾,” she captioned an Instagram photo of Gregg sitting in front of a computer screen that read “Cancer” with a red line through it in June 2018. “#f—kcancer #mdandersoncancercenter #yougotthis #iloveyou.”
The Bravo star opened up to Us Weekly exclusively in November 2018 about how her relationship had changed following Gregg’s diagnosis.
“Honestly, it’s a really tough time. Like, it’s really hard, you know? I never knew that cancer could come into our lives and change it the way that it has. It’s been really hard for me, it really has,” the Glee alum told Us at the time. “I mean, it’s been like a roller coaster. There are days where we have good days and Gregg has good days, then we have bad days and, you know, I feel alone, he feels alone. Because, you know, he sleeps downstairs, I sleep upstairs, out of all the years we’ve ever been together, we’ve never done that before.”
She continued, “I feel like the day they told me that he had cancer, I feel like I lost my husband. I prayed so many nights, ‘Just please give me back my husband because I do not have a partner right now.’ And you realize all the things that your partner really did, like, he, … I don’t really know who has my cable. I mean, seriously, I don’t even know who the damn yard people are. … And those are the kind of the things that Gregg really took care of, so now I’m walking around like, ‘OK, now wait. I don’t want nothing to go off up in here, where do you pay this at? Where does this go?’”
The couple were happy to announce Gregg was cancer-free in May 2019. They shared the news with a photo of the real estate investor holding a handmade sign that read, “No Cancer Found! Praise God.”
“We are doing good,” NeNe told Us at the time. “We’re in a great place.”
