NeNe Leakes Was Accused Of Having A ‘Strategic Friendship’ With Wendy Williams During The ‘RHOA’ Reunion

NeNe Leakes is defending her relationship with friend and daytime talk show host, Wendy Williams.

Leakes recently took to her YouTube page to give her 108,000 subscribers a glimpse of what went down at Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s virtual reunion. The show was taped digitally on Thursday, April 23 due to the national stay-at-home order.

Through her Sunday, April 26 video, Leakes said her friendship with Williams became a hot topic at the reunion. According to Hollywood Life, she said one of her cast members questioned the validity of their relationship while they were filming the special. Leakes, who has known Williams for several years, claims she’s never used their friendship to get further in her career.

The video continues with Leakes explaining how Williams came up at the reunion. She says the two had a “disagreement” that stemmed from Williams referring to Leakes on her show. Earlier this month, Williams was shooting an episode of Wendy @ Home when Leakes called her. After seeing who was trying to contact her, Williams hung up on Leakes and referred to her as “that girl over there,” according to Leakes. She said she was asked about the situation at the reunion, even though Williams isn’t a cast member. One of the housewives reportedly told Leakes she needs Williams’ “platform” to share her side of issues pertaining to the show.

“I explained as best as I could that I don’t have a strategic relationship with her,” Leakes recalled.

“She reached out to me when we weren’t talking. So, the relationship isn’t strategic. She wanted to get to a better place. And when she reached out to me and we talked about it, I told her that if we ever have another issue, that I would never go on another public platform and speak about it. She told me, if we ever had any other issue, that she would personally call me and text me -she would not go publicly talking about it.”

Williams and Leakes decided to rekindle their friendship in August 2019, shortly after Williams legally separated from her ex, Kevin Hunter, Sr. While they’ve frequently been seen hanging out with each other on social media, Williams has never made a physical appearance on RHOA. In Season 12, Leakes had one phone conversation with Williams that was captured on-camera. Williams has since confirmed the scene would be her last on the show, as she has no interest in holding a Georgia peach in the future. Although she doesn’t see herself on the show, Leakes’ friend and cast member, Marlo Hampton, feels Williams would make a great addition.