January 14, 2026
Bravo fans are rejoicing over news of NeNe Leakes’ return to the network on a new “Real Housewives” spinoff.
NeNe Leakes is making her return to Bravo through a new Real Housewives spinoff, six years after wrapping up her 12-season run on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
The RHOA original will appear in Bravo’s newly announced working-title series, The Real Housewives: Ultimate Road Trip, with NeNe Leakes making a notable appearance when the show heads to Atlanta, TMZ reports. Executive Producer Andy Cohen first unveiled the spinoff at BravoCon in November, describing it as a girls’ trip–style series packed with cameo appearances from Housewives across multiple franchises, with different women popping up in each city.
Although Leakes won’t return in a full-time capacity, her appearance during the Atlanta stop is being viewed as a potential tease for a future comeback to The Real Housewives of Atlanta, the franchise she helped build. Leakes exited the show in 2020 and later filed a lawsuit against Bravo, accusing the network of racial discrimination, among other allegations.
The allegations strained her long-standing relationship with the network, leaving many to question whether the fan favorite would ever return. The lawsuit was ultimately dropped in August 2022, with both sides agreeing to settle the dispute through arbitration.
Leakes has repeatedly hinted at a potential comeback to RHOA and the broader Bravo universe.
“I don’t know, if the opportunity was right and the check was on point, why not?” NeNe said in January 2025, when asked if she’d ever return as a housewife.
Months later, she clarified that she’d consider returning to the show—but only as a full-time housewife, not in a “friend of” capacity.
“If I were to ever step back on that platform, would I be [the] friend? I really kind of feel like I don’t know that I would be a friend,” she said during a July 2025 episode of the “Humble Brag” podcast. “I just would think, NeNe, season 1, the first Housewife, and I’m a friend? I don’t know.”
It seems a full-time return to Bravo might be on Leakes’ horizon.
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