Yahoo Finance ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta’ Sets Season 14 Cast as Production Starts (EXCLUSIVE)
With production on Season 14 on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” officially starting, Variety can reveal the cast list — as of Monday morning, the deals have all closed. Season 13’s Kandi Burruss, Kenya Moore and Drew Sidora are returning; once and future “Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast member Shereé Whitfield is coming back; and Marlo Hampton, a longtime “friend” of the “RHOA” ladies, has finally gotten her peach to become an official member of the cast. Additionally, track star Sanya Richards-Ross — a four-time Olympic Gold medalist — has joined the group full-time. Richards-Ross may be new to “RHOA,” but she isn’t a stranger to reality TV: “Sanya’s Glam and Gold,” about her family and marriage to former NFL cornerback Aaron Ross, ran for one season on We TV in 2013.
We already knew who was leaving “RHOA,” since both Porsha Williams and Cynthia Bailey announced their departures from the Bravo show last month. Bailey said later that she’d been offered a “friend” role, rather than being in the main cast, and decided it was her time to leave. Williams’ departure was the rare “Real Housewives” instance — spotted in the wild! — of a cast member voluntarily quitting, though she won’t be leaving Bravo behind: She’s starring in an upcoming spinoff based on her family, and remains a co-host of “Bravo’s Chat Room.”
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The departures of Williams and Bailey, the casting of Richards-Ross, Hampton becoming a full-time cast member, and the return of Whitfield were reported by lovebscott.com last month.
Variety has also learned that none of the “friends” from last season will return for the show’s 14th season. So we won’t see Tanya Sam, who disppeared from filming in Season 13 after she was accused of having a threesome with Williams and Bolo, the stripper. Nor will we see Latoya Ali, who bonded with Moore (until she didn’t), and clashed with Sidora. Falynn Guobadia also won’t be back this season, which will be a disappointment to those who would have wanted to hear her talk about the messiness that Williams is now engaged to her recently ex-husband, Simon.
And despite what the blogs say — to use the preferred “RHOA” term for how information spreads — NeNe Leakes won’t appear on the show this season.
But Whitfield’s return promises to be a homecoming for her, and for fans. An OG cast member of “RHOA” — and the inventor of such catchphrases as “Who gon’ check me, boo?,” as well as the retort “fix that face!” to NeNe Leakes — Whitfield was on Seasons 1-4. She returned as a “friend” for the show’s eighth season, and was a full-time member of the cast for Seasons 9 and 10. In the show’s 10th season, Whitfield’s storyline was dragged down by the fact that yes, she was in a relationship — but it was with a man named Tyrone Gilliams, who was serving 10 years in prison for wire fraud. In February of this year, TMZ reported that Gilliams was released early because of COVID, and that he and Whitfield had reunited. They are still together, and he will be on the show.
Not to mention that Whitfield and Hampton can revisit their fight from the trip to South Africa in Season 4, which is seen as a classic “Real Housewives” battle, in which the two of them made faces at one another for what seemed to be an entire (delightful!) day.
Indeed, Hampton has been appearing on “RHOA” for that long without becoming an official member of the cast until now.
Courtesy of Bravo
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to credit lovebscott.com.
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