NeNe Leakes Defends Freakout on ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ in Midst of Gregg Leakes’ Cancer Struggle

NeNe Leakes isn’t apologizing for flipping out on her Real Housewives of Atlanta castmates after they tried to get a peek inside her closet.

In Sunday’s episode of the Bravo show, NeNe was clearly having a tough time while throwing a “Bye Wig” party for her friends after husband Gregg Leakes was readmitted to the hospital with a blood clot amid his cancer diagnosis, breaking down in front of her guests over a spat with longtime friend Marlo Hampton.

She eventually got herself together upstairs in her bedroom, but lost it again on co-stars Kandi Burruss, Porsha Williams and the camera crew when they came upstairs to visit her, trying to get a glimpse of her much-lauded closet.

“It is not together,” NeNe told Burruss when she asked to see it. “My closet is stupid.”

After some encouragement from Hampton, Burruss and Williams, who is pregnant, decided to enter the room without NeNe’s permission. When the cameras went to follow, NeNe snapped, grabbing a crew member before the footage became unclear and chaos ensued.

Despite the shocking footage, NeNe defended her reaction the same night on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. When asked by the Bravo boss if she thought she had overreacted, NeNe refused to back down.

“No, I did not. How are you going to overreact in your own home? If I tell you to visit me and sit right here, you need to sit right here. You don’t have the right to go through my house to open up my doors, my closets, my pantries, none of that,” NeNe told Cohen.

She added that the move she saw as disrespectful was part of a pattern she had seen with former castmates Kenya Moore and Sheree Whitfield, both of whose homes became a part of show history for their perceived failings.

“When you come to my house, you’re not going to disrespect my home,” she said. “They were not in the right. Because you can’t come in someone’s house—First of all, they weren’t even invited upstairs. They just came upstairs on their own.”

While Watch What Happens Live viewers sided with Burruss and Williams in a live poll about the issue, NeNe was nonplussed.

“I don’t give a damn whose side they’re on. I don’t give a damn about this poll,” she said. “I don’t even know why I have to explain anything in my house. If I tell you that you can’t go in my closet, you can’t go in my closet.”

The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Photo credit: Bravo