Why Nene Leakes remains a reality TV icon nearly two decades later
TheGrio...
After more than five years away from the franchise Nene Leakes is making her grand return to “The Real Housewives” universe.
You cannot mention the “Real Housewives” of any city without mentioning Mrs. NeNe Leakes of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
The reality TV star first appeared on our screens nearly 20 years ago in 2008 when “Atlanta” first began (through 2020), and has since cemented herself in pop culture as one of the best to ever do it. She parlayed her Housewives fame into legitimate Hollywood success, landing roles on shows like “Glee” and “The New Normal,” all while being responsible for some of reality television’s most iconic moments, catchphrases and cultural phenomena. Meme libraries everywhere would simply not be the same without her.
Which is why her return to the franchise after more than five years away by way of the upcoming season of “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip,” has so many fans excited to tune in when the new season kicks off Sunday on Peacock.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the franchise, which began in Orange County, California, before expanding to cities across the country and around the world, “Ultimate Girls Trip” is taking Housewives from different franchises on a trip through the show’s two-decade history. Along the way, the women will make stops connected to some of the franchise’s biggest moments and personalities, including a stop in Atlanta that brings Leakes back into the fold.
Knowing we will soon be reunited with Leakes in the ATL and, in some capacity, the Housewives universe has us thinking about why she became so iconic in the first place. Why, after all these years, are people so ready to see her again? There are plenty of reasons.
For starters, she said what she said. Leakes famously declared, “I said what I said,” during the season 10 reunion while going back and forth with fellow castmate Kandi Burruss, and the exchange has lived on forever in meme form. Yet, like so many of Leakes’ most memorable moments, the line escaped the confines of the show because of how familiar it felt. There was something deeply satisfying about watching a Black woman refuse to shrink, soften or over-explain herself after being challenged. Sometimes what you said was honest, sometimes it was messy, and sometimes it may have hurt somebody’s feelings. Either way, baby, you said what you said.
Then there is “whew chile, the ghetto,” a line Leakes uttered while approaching Kenya Moore’s temporary home in an early season, before promptly clocking the white refrigerator inside. We would need the white refrigerator industry to finally come forward with the data, but it is safe to say Leakes permanently altered the way an entire generation looks at a basic kitchen appliance.
Who could forget the time she told former castmate Kim Zolciak what to do with her legs around Maddie’s men or when she said “so nasty and so rude” about Kenya Moore or “bloop!” and “bling bling, bling, bling, b— is mad!”—which is alive and well in rap songs and being used across TikTok to this day.
That is the magic of NeNe. Her funniest moments rarely stayed on “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” They became reaction GIFs, inside jokes, everyday expressions and shorthand for feelings people had long experienced but perhaps never thought to articulate quite like she did. Years later, a NeNe reaction can still say everything that needs to be said without typing a single word.
She also managed something relatively few Housewives have done by building a career well beyond the franchise. During and after her original run, in addition to starring in “Glee” and “The New Normal,” she also competed on “Dancing With the Stars,” took on Broadway and has continued making television appearances. Not to mention how much her life has transformed through the years.
It’s almost wild to think about the NeNe Leakes we first met 18 years ago compared to the woman we know today. When “Atlanta” premiered, she was joined at the hip with Kim, married to Gregg Leakes, and raising a teenage son. So much has changed since then. The friendship with Kim certainly didn’t survive, her family grew to include grandchildren, and we watched her marriage to Gregg weather fame, divorce, remarriage, and ultimately his heartbreaking death from colon cancer in 2021 at the age of 66.
Since her reign on the show came to an end, NeNe herself has continued to transform right before our eyes, switching up her style, serving look after look, regardless of what others think someone her age should be wearing, and somehow finding new ways to keep her foot firmly planted on these necks. Her life has even begun to include advocacy including making an appearance on the Hill earlier this year for HIV prevention. One thing, however, that has remained remarkably consistent through nearly two decades of NeNe has been that hair. Whether short, bobbed, curled, or bussed all the way down, she has remained committed to her signature sandy blonde hue for so long that the internet has collectively decided the woman is a natural blonde.
Can reality TV stars get lifetime achievement awards? Because at this point, she deserves one.
Ultimately, though, what makes Leakes iconic is bigger than her post show résumé or her collection of viral clips. She burst onto our screens and never refused to dull herself or her Blackness. She was loud, glamorous, messy, hilarious, wrong sometimes, dead right other times and always unmistakably herself. For Black viewers especially, there was something familiar in her humor and her delivery. She could remind you of an auntie, an older cousin or that seasoned coworker who can hear one story about your friend and immediately tell you exactly what their problem is.
Long before reality television fully understood the value of a great reaction shot or a cast member who could turn one sentence into an internet phenomenon, NeNe was giving us all of that and more. She helped create the blueprint for what a modern Housewife could be while bringing a version of Black womanhood to television that could be glamorous without needing to be pristine, funny without performing respectability, and larger than life while somehow still feeling like somebody you knew.
Twenty years into the Housewives universe, plenty of women have held peaches, diamonds, champagne flutes, and whatever else Bravo can think of. Few however, have left fingerprints on the culture quite like Miss NeNe Leakes. And if this brief return reminds everybody of what we’ve been missing, well, we certainly wouldn’t mind if somebody gave that woman a peach again.