Exclusive: Cynthia Bailey Details On-&-Off-Again Friendship w/ Former ‘RHOA’ Co-Star NeNe Leakes: We Were Always Very Equal, But She Just Had A Bigger Personality

December 21, 2022 by S. G. in Exclusive with 0 Comments

Nene Leakes, Cynthia Bailey

Exclusive: Cynthia Bailey Details On-&-Off-Again Friendship w/ Former ‘RHOA’ Co-Star NeNe Leakes: We Were Always Very Equal, But She Just Had A Bigger Personality

The relationships and friendships Cynthia Bailey has experienced on-screen have varied, but one particular bond has undoubtedly had its ups and downs.

In an exclusive interview with Jasmine Brand, the CEO of theJasmineBRAND, the recently divorced former housewife discussed her on-again-off-again friendship with NeNe Leakes.

Cynthia Bailey said,

“I was with the most popular one on the show, NeNe [Leakes], who was kind of like a villain too at the time. We had a real relationship, which is why it was so hard for me when we weren’t friends anymore. We hung out off camera, on camera, on vacations, we traveled a lot together, it was authentic and very genuine… alot of people refer to me as her sidekick or whatever. We were always very equal, but she just had a bigger personality. I’m never going to say never [to reconciling with NeNe] because you never know what God has in store for us.”

During the third season of the BRAVO series in 2010, Cynthia Bailey made headlines when she gave NeNe Leakes a friendship contract. Everything began when Cynthia made the decision to pull NeNe Leakes aside and discuss some of their disagreements. Cynthia then handed NeNe a candle gift and a friend contract, which needed to be notarized and signed by the President.

NeNe ultimately didn’t understand the “joke,” branding her frenemy a “single Black female” in the awkward situation.

In regards to the RHOA friend contract, Cynthia said,

“As a joke, because I think I do have a funny sense of humor, I was like you know what I don’t know what’s going on, but I feel like I need to put it under contract. ‘Are we friends or not?’ I wrote out the friend contract, and I took it to the scene, and it was like a really weird scene. I think we were at Kim Zolciak’s house, and I can already tell as soon as I pull up the energy ain’t right. So I get there, and I think she’s doing a scene with Kim and I’m just hanging around and I don’t know what was happening.”

EXCLUSIVE: NeNe Leakes Ends Friendship W/ Cynthia Bailey During Reunion After Explosive BTS Footage Revealed, Why She Unfollowed RHOA Cast Explained

She added,

“So finally, I was like, ‘Hey NeNe can I talk to you for a second,’ because my feelings were hurt, but I didn’t really know how to approach it because we were on a TV show, and I didn’t really want to fall out with my only friend. So I was like, you know, ‘well I just want to give you this because you know I love you…’ The next thing I know… all I see are these other scenes where they are passing it around like, ‘She’s crazy!’ ‘Who does this!’ When I tell you I was like, Oh My God it was a joke, they were supposed to be laughing, and they made it seem like I was a NeNe stalker.”

Fast forward to her 2021 departure after 10 seasons and 11 years, Cynthia revealed that the network also offered her a “friend contract” to return for season 14. She, of course, declined their offer.

NeNe was on RHOA from season one, which aired in 2008, until season 12, which aired in 2019. Earlier this year the reality star turned businesswoman sued Bravo and Andy Cohen over claims that she suffered years of racist remarks from former co-star Kim Zolciak-Biermann, who is white. She has since dropped the lawsuit.