NeNe Leakes Allegedly Sent a RHOA Producer to the Hospital After Her Closet 'Breakdown'
There was a lot more to NeNe Leakes’ closet meltdown than fans saw on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, including an altercation with a male producer that allegedly put him in the hospital.
During the conclusion of the three-part season 11 reunion on Sunday, Leakes’ costars Porsha Williams, Kandi Burruss, Cynthia Bailey, Eva Marcille, Shamari DeVoe, Marlo Hampton and Tanya Sam explained what happened when the cameras stopped rolling during the infamous battle at this year’s “Bye Wig” party.
As fans remember, the event was dramatic from the jump, with Leakes crying over the stress she was feeling during her husband’s cancer battle. Just when she appeared to have calmed down, Williams and Burruss set her off again — venturing to get a look at her closet even though she had explicitly asked them to stay outside.
When the cameras followed Williams and Burruss, Leakes leaped up, ripping a male cameraman’s T-shirt while pulling him back from entering her private space. From there, it was hard to make out what happened next, but according to the group, the footage didn’t capture Leakes as she turned her anger toward a producer on the show.
“[He] got choked up, scratched up, and went to the hospital,” Williams claimed on the reunion, saying that Leakes had to be removed from the unnamed man. :He absolutely had scratches on his back and absolutely got choked up and had his head smashed against the wall. He went to the hospital!”
“His tooth got knocked out,” Burruss claimed, adding that the man “was holding his hands up” the whole time, not fighting back. “He was making sure that every move was on him, from her,” Williams said.
A rep for Bravo did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the allegations, but Leakes acknowledged on the reunion that she had put her hands on the producer while claiming she didn’t know he went to the hospital.
“I didn’t know nothing about that,” she said. “I don’t know how he would get scratches on his back. I heard about the tooth. I heard his tooth was cracked.”
Justified as she felt she was for her anger, Leakes admitted her feelings “didn’t give me the right to touch him.”
But she also said that pulling the cameraman’s T-shit “didn’t bother” her. “It didn’t,” Leakes said. “I said we were not filming in my closet and no one is to go in my closet. That was a rule set up front. … I’m not going to beat this thing, okay? You saw me have a breakdown. I don’t have to be sorry for having a breakdown.”
The producer allegedly wasn’t the only person with whom Leakes got physical. Williams claimed at the reunion that Leakes had pushed her as she was leaving the closet, removing her belt in the process.
It was an allegation that had been hinted at in previous episodes, though this was the first time Williams had outright said it.
According to Williams, she only realized that Leakes was serious about not going into her closet when she was already in there. “We kind of thought it was like a playful situation,” Williams said. “And then NeNe comes in and she said, ‘I said get out!’ and I felt a hand on my back and my belt came off and I went forward. So at that point, I was like, ‘Okay, she means it.’ And then once I walked out the closet, that’s when I saw the man’s shirt ripped. And then I saw her choking up the producer. That’s exactly what happened.”
That’s not how Leakes remembered it. “You’re saying I put my hand on your back? I wasn’t even behind you!” she said.
“How did my belt come off?” Williams asked Leakes. “I was the last one to leave out the closet. Once I got to the front of the closet to walk out, I felt a shove and my damn belt came off. You were behind me!”
None of Williams and Leakes’ costars could confirm the push took place.
Hampton told Cohen that she “didn’t see” Leakes “touch” Porsha, despite screaming to Leakes during the scene, “She’s pregnant! You can’t push her!”
Burruss also said she didn’t see what happened. “I was in front of Porsha, so I didn’t see the pull,” Burruss said. “When she came in the closet, I could tell she was serious so I was like, ‘I’m going to get the hell up out this closet.’ And then I saw the rest of it which was her fighting with one of the producers.”
Still, they all agreed the situation was tough. “It was scary,” said Sam. “It was fast and it was furious and she was angry. She was angry.”
“If somebody is sitting here right now to tell you that they are not terrified, they are f—ing lying,” Williams said.
In the end, Leakes maintained her innocence, claiming that she didn’t even remember threatening to producers that she would hurt Williams and Burruss if she saw “those two bitches again,” as Williams claimed she heard Leakes say.
“I don’t recall any of that,” Leakes said, acknowledging that she could have blacked out from anger. “If I said it, I said it. I don’t mind that I called you a bitch. It’s okay.”
Asked by Cohen if she regrets what happened, Leakes said, “The one thing I regretted the most when I watched it was all the cursing.”
Meanwhile, Leakes has taken her anger towards Williams off camera, allegedly blasting her earlier this month in a series of scathing texts. Williams shot back by sharing the messages on social media.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta: Porsha’s Having a Baby airs Sundays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
