The long-gestating rumors have turned into a reality for Kenya Moore.
According to a reliable new report, the veteran reality star will not be returning to The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Chatter over Moore’s role on the Bravo hit has been making the Internet rounds for weeks now.
Heck, there was even talk about a month ago that Moore would be fired by producers because she did not want cameras in the room when she gave birth.
(Indeed, Kenya is pregnant! How exciting, right?!?)
This People Magazine article, however, makes no such grand (and semi-ridiculous) claim.
It explains that Moore could not even technically be fired from the series because she was in the middle of a contract negotiation; she was not actually signed for Season 11.
And that contract negotiation?
It did NOT go smoothly.
An insider tells People that production and Moore both wanted her to return as a full-time Housewife.
However, she wanted more money than the network was offering, while executives did actually want to film all aspects of her life, most notably the time she spends with husband Marc Daly.
Moore stunned fans last summer when she married Daly…
… and she also stunned producers, who wanted to film the ceremony. If only they had known about it!
But Kenya and Daly famously got eloped in June of 2017 when the Bravo cameras were down, without telling producers.
He only appeared on The Real Housewives of Atlanta once during season 10, for a brief cameo.
Moreover:
The couple is expecting its first child together (he or she is due before the end of the year), yet Moore kept her entire fertility treatment away from series.
Nor did she participate in last season’s cast trip to Barcelona.
In other words: we sort of get where the show is coming from here.
The whole point of being a cast member is to open up your life to viewers.
You can’t pick and choose what aspects you wish to make public, not when you’re getting paid a ton tobe a Real Housewife.
“Everyone wanted to have Kenya back, but they wanted to have the old Kenya back – the one who isn’t afraid of the cameras,” a source close to production told the aforementioned publication, adding:
“You can’t have secrets and be on reality TV. Especially when other Housewives are showing all of their lives – the good, bad, and the ugly.
“They need to see your life.”
This report concludes that Daly isn’t really interested in being on the show; that Kenya knows her worth; and that she was fine playing hardball.
She can live with this outcome.
“Kenya really loves her life with her husband. She’s always wanted to be a wife and a mother, and she’s put all of her focus into her growing family,” the source explains.
“She’s not going to jeopardize that for some television show.”