Cynthia Bailey may believe she tried to bring NeNe Leakes and Kenya Moore together during season 12 of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, but the OG peach holder begs to differ.
“I tried. I tried. You’ll see in the season. I tried to connect those two, and let’s just say it was not a love connect,” Cynthia told Us Weekly exclusively. “And I am out of the matchmaking business. I’m done.”
When asked about the situation, NeNe, who ended season 11 on the outs with Cynthia, fired back.
“Cynthia has never tried to get me and Kenya back to together. She’s always tried to get Kenya back with other people, but where I was concerned, she’s never tried to get us together,” the Glee alum told Us exclusively. “For whatever reason, I don’t know why that is.”
While NeNe and Kenya haven’t seen eye to eye in years, she admitted to Us that the former Miss USA, who returned to the Bravo series after a year off for season 12, is “good” for the show.
“I think Kenya’s great for the show. So I didn’t feel any kind of way other than, look, I’m here on the show,” NeNe explained. “I’ve been on the show for many years and I want the show to stay around for the next 10 or 15 years.”
The Dancing With the Stars alum, however, told Us that she didn’t see Kenya too much while filming the season.
“I wasn’t around her that often,” she said. “Only when [the whole] cast [was there], that’s when I was around her. Obviously we’re not friends, so we’re not around each other like that.”
While NeNe named costars Kandi Burruss and Eva Marcille and “friend” of Housewives Marlo Hampton and Tanya Sam as her closest friends on the show, NeNe made it clear that she doesn’t need anyone to have her back.
“I’m a strong woman and I can stand alone and I can fight all my battles by myself. I don’t need anyone to have my back, I got my back by myself,” she told Us. “But Marlo is definitely a cool person with me. I feel like she will have my back when she needs to have my back. When every one of these girls around me know that I’m a strong person and I don’t need anybody to have my back. And yeah, I don’t need anybody to have my back, I’m good. But I’m happy to film with Kandi, Marlo. … I was happy to film with Tanya and I was happy to film with Eva.”
