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‘RHOA’ Season 8: Claudia Jordan, Sheree Whitfield, And Marlo Hampton Not In Starring Lineup

By Karen de Wilde
Published on: 16:03 PST, Sep 27, 2015

Bravo has released the official air date for The Real Housewives of Atlanta season 8 and the women who will be starring in it. On Sunday evening, during the Married 2 Medicine reunion, Bravo aired a promo photo of the upcoming season. The photo shows Cynthia Bailey, Porsha Williams, Kandi Burruss, Kim Fields, Kenya Moore, and Phaedra Parks. The new season will premiere on Sunday, November 8.

Some of the show’s fans were quick to share their excitement over the new season.

Noticeably absent from the promo photo is Sheree Whitfield and Claudia Jordan. Since filming for the new season began, there have been many reports that Sheree, who starred on the show from seasons 1 through 4, will be returning to the show as a starring housewife. She has even been photographed filming the new season, along with some of the housewives from the previous season.

In a tweet, Kenya revealed that Sheree won’t be seen as a starring housewife this season. Yet Kenya also seemed to indicate that viewers will indeed see Sheree sometimes by telling the viewer to not worry.

Cynthia Bailey has actually confirmed that viewers will see Sheree Whitfield on the eighth season. In an interview with Wetpaint, posted on Tuesday, Cynthia said that she’s “excited” to have Sheree back on the show. Cynthia noted that she and Sheree never really got the chance to know each other in the previous seasons. Perhaps Cynthia was admitting that her friendship with NeNe Leakes, who decided to not return to the show, prevented her from getting to know Sheree the two seasons they were on together?

“I’m excited to have Sheree back, in particular, because we never really got a chance to get to know each other when we were on the show before. It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out this time around.”

The photographs of Sheree Whitfield filming the new season, posted by All About The Tea in August, also included Marlo Hampton. While Marlo was never an official housewife on the show, she was frequently seen on it on several seasons, first as NeNe Leakes’ friend and then as Kenya Moore’s friend. Marlo even appeared on the season 4 reunion show, where she battled with Kim Zolciak. Yet Bravo’s promo photo makes it pretty clear that Marlo Hampton, like Sheree Whitfield, won’t be seen as a starring housewife on the eighth season.

Another person whose absence from the promo photo may be surprising to many The Real Housewives of Atlanta viewers is Claudia Jordan. Claudia joined the show, and started filming, on the seventh season as a “friend” of the housewives. After filming ended, she was promoted to a starring housewife role, taking Porsha Williams’ place. Porsha was reduced to being a “friend,” also known as a recurring housewife.

In a statement to Us Weekly in October 2014, Porsha admitted that she was “blindsided” by Bravo’s decision to demote her last minute.

“After a long season of filming, and giving my all, I was blindsided by the announcement from the network that I was demoted from ‘Housewife Status,’ but would remain on the show in a ‘Friend’ capacity. Unfortunately, I can only be PORSHA, and portraying anything else would not be genuine nor honest.”

Perhaps Claudia can once again prove that she’s worthy of being a starring housewife?

Claudia Jordan has not commented on her absence from The Real Housewives of Atlanta promo photo. Neither has her friend Kenya Moore. Kenya has, however, made clear that she’s not happy with Bravo for one thing: making it seem as if she’s as short as Phaedra Parks.

[Photo by Jesse Grant / Getty Images]

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Sheree Whitfield The Real Housewives of Atlanta claudia jordan Kenya Moore
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