VIDEO NeNe Leakes cries over Uber rape joke backlash during Instagram Live stream
The Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s NeNe Leakes continues her damage control efforts after she made a “joke” about a female audience member at the “Girls Nite Out for Laughs” stand-up comedy show in Oakland over the weekend. “I hope your Uber driver rapes you’re a** tonight, b*tch,” NeNe is heard telling the woman.
Another audience member caught the tasteless comment on video, and it later went viral online. NeNe was her usual sassy clapback self initially, responding to commenters on Instagram on Monday by writing: “It’s comedy! Not church! Get into it or don’t come!”
But, the controversial “joke” and the video continued to garner more and more attention, and I’m guessing NeNe eventually realized that she had better back off the sass and ramp up the remorse. Just a few hours after the “It’s comedy! Not Church!” comment, NeNe posted a lengthy apology on both Instagram and Facebook.
Apparently the written statement was not enough to convince people that NeNe was truly sorry, so she took to Instagram Live for a tearful live stream:
The snippet is a little confusing because there is clearly more to the context of NeNe’s tears, and more to the story of what happened that caused her to lash out at the audience member. I didn’t see the full Instagram Live stream, so I’m not sure about those details. It sounds as though the woman that NeNe wished would get raped by her Uber driver had made racist comments towards NeNe, and possibly even suggested that she kill herself. Here is the full transcript from the clip:
NENE: It’s ’cause I said the wrong thing back.
WOMAN: And you said it in a moment of passion! It wasn’t something that you sat in the back and that you wrote into your script: “Hey, I’m gonna go out here and call these mother f***ers racist” and do all of that, that was something that happened in an instant. Hell, what we’re doing and what we’re dealing with at this day and age right now — racism is very real, and it’s unfortunate that it had to come out that way, but you know, it’s unfortunate to tell somebody to go kill theyself too because had you killed yourself that night, would this woman be going through that? Would they know that this is happening?
NENE: No because they don’t care. All they care about is what I said. I said — at the end of the day, I just want to be — I never want to cause harm to anybody else, not in that kind of way. Everybody who know me knows that I never would want that to happen.
Meanwhile, NeNe may soon be regretting some other comments she recently made in which she repeatedly called her Real Housewives of Atlanta co-star Kim Zolciak Biermann, her 20-year-old daughter Brielle Biermann, and their “entire family” racist.
Kim has retained the services of Allison Hart at the high-profile law firm Lavely & Singer, and they have already sent NeNe a letter demanding a retraction and an apology. From TMZ:
The letter, obtained by TMZ, references some choice comments NeNe made on social media, including, “Kim & her child did something very wrong & disgusting! Black people and roaches in the same sentence don’t work for me boo.” She then went on to call Brielle “#racisttrash” and “#KKK,” adding, “Kim & her daughter oops whole family are racists!”
The letter calls the statements “outrageous and malicious lies.”
What’s more, the lawyer says Brielle never posted the video showing the cockroaches crawling on the floor, but it was NeNe who got the video and posted it on Twitter and Instagram.
The letter makes it clear … NeNe has roaches, but it’s not racist to say that.
Kim revealed she had hired the law firm during an appearance on Entertainment Tonight:
I don’t have anything to say [to Leaks]. I think it’s pretty inappropriate. I think the banter back and forth and kind of having fun and there’s catty moments, we’re all grown women and just kind of living life. But the racism card is not something that I feel like, in this day and age, that you should pull. And I didn’t take it lightly. And yes, I have hired Marty Singer.
I don’t take it lightly and I don’t appreciate it, and the hashtag, “KKK,” is kind of the one that put me over the edge. And to say my whole family is [racist], there’s been threats on Brielle’s Instagram, threats on my stuff. We’ve had to change a lot of things in the last few days because of it. I mean, it just takes one crazy person. This world is a crazy place, and in this situation, I just… I’ll never understand it.
Wait a minute, isn’t it in the Bravo contracts that Real Housewives can’t sue each other? “I checked with my sources for clarification of the Bravo contract clause that forbids housewives from suing each other,” Tamra Tattles says. “I was told that they are allowed to sue each other for things that happen off the show. So, this might actually happen.”
Bloop! Something tells me that NeNe will not be hiring Phaedra for her defense.