Kenya Moore is opening up about the actions that led to her exit from Bravo‘s The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
The reality TV personality and entrepreneur was one of two RHOA stars to survive the cast shakeup for Season 16. However, her time on the show was short-lived after she hosted an event where she exposed sexually explicit images of her new co-star, Brittany Eady.
In an interview on the Tamron Hall show, Moore revealed what led to her decision to leak those pictures during the show’s filming.
Moore told Hall that when new cast members join the show, there’s a tendency to “come on and try to make a name for themselves,” and “things took like a really dark turn toward me,” adding, “There was a young lady that was new, and she just was poking the bear.”
The former Miss USA reminded everyone that her catchphrase is, “Don’t come for me unless I send for you,” noting that she doesn’t start any drama but only responds to attacks from her co-stars.
Moore said that during a taping of the show, “the young lady escalated to the point of tearing off mics, screaming all kind of obscenities at me and threatening me.”
Following the incident, Moore said, “There were threats in my direction, and I felt very concerned. ” She told producers that she was scared and they told her they would take care of it. However, Moore didn’t feel like the show’s producers were taking care of the situation, adding, “They actually made me feel like I was being a Black Karen.”
“I don’t take threats or the way that I felt — you can’t invalidate my feelings,” Moore said. “It was a real concern for me. I’m a single mom with a beautiful child that if anything happened to me, no one would be there for her.”
Moore continued, “I didn’t feel like I was being protected and I took matters into my own hands. I did my research on her. I found a lot of information, especially in the explicit world, with a few clicks with people helping me. I didn’t get things sent to me, photos or videos that I did see that were allegedly her.”
After Moore claims to have found these images online, she exposes them during the show’s filming, believing that producers will blur the photos out of the final cut.
Moore seemed regretful for her actions after Hall pointed out that she “was surprised by the level of aggression in this.”
“If I could do it all over again — I believe the photos were very distasteful and I elevated the situation,” she said. “I’m taking full accountability for the thing that I’ve done. I am sorry for what I’ve done. I didn’t have to take it that far. But when I felt threatened, I never had a child and be in a situation like this before, so that’s why I escalated it to the point where I was protecting not only myself but my child.”
Hall read a statement from Bravo, in which the network said, “We take all allegations of violations of our policies seriously, reviewed the matter, and took appropriate action.”
Moore alleges that she was not fired from Bravo and told Hall that she’s “had some conversations” about possibly returning to RHOA in the future, noting that she maintains a close relationship with executive producer Andy Cohen.
“You know who has been such a great support system for me during all this — Andy Cohen,” she said. “He has called, he has checked on me, he has given me advice. And I feel like he’s a really good friend and I just appreciate his support.”
Moore said that she is still under contract with the network and said that she “could” potentially pop up at the RHOA Season 16 reunion.
“I think it’s important to have my point of view because I haven’t done interviews, I haven’t had my say,” she said. “It’s unfortunate because I started off as a housewife — longest-running on this series — and now I don’t have a voice and that’s really hard.”
