Kenya Moore Sounds Off on ‘RHOA’ Season 16: Kandi Burruss’ Exit, Porsha Williams’ Return and More! (Exclusive)
More than a year after filming season 15 of ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ Kenya Moore has some thoughts on the show’s next chapter.
Kenya Moore is keeping her peach status a mystery.
“If I get an offer — if I have an offer — you’ll know it when Bravo announces it,” the Real Housewives of Atlanta star tells ET amid the hit series’ extended hiatus.
RHOA‘s 15th season wrapped up its run in September. Historically, the ladies launched back into production soon after their finale aired, but cameras have yet to go back up in the ATL as Bravo creatively retools (aka recasts) for season 16. It’s unclear how many, if any, of the former cast — Kenya, Drew Sidora, Shereé Whitfield, Marlo Hampton, Sanya Richards-Ross and a handful of “friends of” — will return, especially after Kandi Burruss, the longest-running Housewife in franchise history, broke the news she would not be back for another go-around.
“We had conversations like, ‘OK, well if you get a phone call let me know…’ We communicated about all of that, and once she told me that she had made the decision not to return I was like, ‘Are you sure? Really think about this. Are you sure?'” Kenya shares. “‘You know, you’ve been there for 14 consecutive years…’ and she is so loved and so well-respected, and I think once she made the decision, it was really clear she felt good about the decision.”
“I said, ‘You know what? I’m gonna stand by you,'” she adds. “‘If that’s what you really want, and that’s where your heart takes you, I’m all for it.'”
Kenya made the choice once before to walk away, too, sitting out season 11 as she focused on her then-new marriage to now-ex-husband Marc Daly and her pregnancy with now-5-year-old daughter Brooklyn.
“I think your gut tells you,” she reflects. “Everything has its season. You can’t have one, single job forever, for the rest of your life, at least most people don’t. You have to follow your heart, and in this time where I just feel liberated, you know? I finally have been granted a divorce, I finally got the most beautiful child I ever wanted — everything that’s on my vision board comes true, for the most part — and I feel like when it’s time for me to move on, I’ll just know, and it’ll be a happy moment. It won’t be sad. It will mean that I am taking a step in a different direction, and I would hope that everyone would support me in that.”
That said, once a Housewife, always a Housewife. It’s a bit of a sorority (or cult, depending on how you look at it) one can’t escape.
“It’ll always be part of my identity, because, honey, I set that stage on fire!” Kenya laughs. “You can’t take that away from me. I made my mark, but I think that … I look back and I see that I was a former Miss USA, I was a Housewife that was a part of pop culture, and I think the next chapter will be as equally as important.”
If RHOA remains a part of Kenya’s next chapter, she has some thoughts on where the show needs to go after the fan feedback from the past few years.
“It looks like fun, it looks like some good old times mixed with some new girls — authenticity is important,” Kenya rattles off. “Freshness, I think freshness is key. I think we need to get back to that right chemistry, and that right mix of friends and frenemies that makes The Real Housewives of Atlanta work.”
“We don’t need ‘co-workers’ any longer,” she quips, a knock to the women operating on these shows as if it’s a job instead of a docuseries about their lives. “We need real friendships and real frenemies, and history and nuance.”
Since RHOA premiered in 2008 (and Kenya joined in 2012), she says the show’s popularity has made it harder to find women willing to share their authentic lives, contributing to the extended pause.
“You’ve had 14 seasons, or 15 seasons of people watching the show and being fans,” she explains. “So, when you try to put a fan and turn them into a Housewife, that’s a problem. It’s almost better [to find someone] who’s not really familiar with the show, or didn’t really want to be a part of it and is now considering.”
There’s much speculation some blasts from the past could resurface on a revitalized RHOA, with fan-favorite Porsha Guobadia (née Williams) heavily rumored to be back in the mix. She’s Kenya’s most memorable frenemy from their time together on the series.
“I would love that,” Kenya says of a Porsha return. She exited the series at the end of season 13, declaring it her “retirement” from Housewives. She did return to the universe for a season of Peacock’s The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, however.
“Honestly, the fans would love that, I would love it,” Kenya adds. “We’ve had some magical moments on TV. I think that it would be brilliant casting and maybe some other oldies but goodies.”
Additional names floating around the rumor mill include alums Phaedra Parks and Kim Zolciak-Biermann. Kenya previously shut down speculation OG star NeNe Leakes would or could return to the show, citing her criticism of and legal challenges to the network since her departure in 2020.
“Are the fans ready for Phaedra?” Kenya asks. “If they are, I’m all here for it. I think it would definitely turn the franchise on its head.”
Of those women, Phaedra’s stayed the most in the Bravo mix. She’s currently starring on the network’s other Atlanta-set series, Married to Medicine, filmed two seasons of Ultimate Girls Trip and is now winning audiences over on season 2 of The Traitors on Peacock, with many fans discovering a side of her not before showcased on RHOA.
“I think that this is the authentic Phaedra,” Kenya muses of the version of her former castmate showcased on The Traitors, on which she’s one of the game’s titular backstabbers.