The All-Time Most Memorable Moments From The Real Housewives Of Atlanta
Each of the cities in the "Real Housewives" franchise have their schtick, and all of them have produced more than their fair share of water cooler moments. We are going to go out on a limb, however, and say that few have produced as many iconic moments as "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" has since it made its debut in 2008. Unlike some of the other cities in the canon, "RHOA" has never had an off season, and that is a true testament to the women who make up its cast. Now in its 14th season, "RHOA" is truly the gift that keeps on giving — offering the most quotable shade, the most side-splitting reads, and the most dramatic fights, sometimes all in the same scene.
While we could write a dissertation on the show's unforgettable moments, we stopped ourselves at 30. We opted for larger situations that defined an episode — or sometimes even a season — and that have lived on in the years since. That means we had to cut some smaller scenes that live rent-free in our minds, like Kim Zolciak-Biermann eating pizza while getting a fat reducing laser treatment, NeNe Leakes' reaction to Kenya Moore's white refrigerator, and Shereé Whitfield's "hell to the nah" song. There was not even room for Leakes' "where is your scooter?" rant, which is one of our favorite "RHOA" quotes. Here, in no particular order, are 30 of the all-time most memorable moments from "The Real Housewives of Atlanta."
Marlo and Shereé's South Africa fight
The thing with fights on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" is that they can be equal parts brutal and hilarious. Never has that been more obvious than in the fight between Marlo Hampton and Shereé Whitfield in Season 4, whilst the crew was vacationing in South Africa. Things erupted because Whitfield had a dinner party that she did not invite Hampton to attend, and it led to some great insults and some fantastic non-verbal shade as well. The fight itself lasted just over six minutes, but its legacy has lived on for over a decade. Whitfield and Hampton even imitated their iconic fight on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta's" 14th season, since they are now friends and can seemingly poke fun at themselves.
The scene in question began in a bedroom, before spilling out down a staircase and into the main living area. Whitfield poked fun at Hampton for "messing with an 80-year-old man" and for living in a townhouse while driving a fancy car, and Hampton dinged Whitfield for hanging out with "drug dealers" and for having financial problems. At the peak of the fight, the two started flipping their heads and hands back and forth while squealing in high-pitched tones. We have no idea what they were saying, but it doesn't matter. In 2012, Hampton told The Hollywood Reporter that she was not mad she was not invited, but irritated that Cynthia Bailey was invited right in front of her hot off the heels of a truce.
Porsha physically attacking Kenya
Viewers collectively gasped when Porsha Williams physically assaulted co-star Kenya Moore on the Season 6 reunion. Executive producer Carlos King said, "It was a very sad moment overall, probably the darkest day in 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' history," when he was interviewed for Dave Quinn's book, "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." He went on to explain that the entire crew and much of the cast were amused when Moore pulled out props — a sceptor and a bullhorn — early into the taping. "Andy was laughing, even the other Housewives, they were laughing. Because that's who Kenya Moore is. That's her shtick," said King. He added, "But Porsha? Porsha wasn't into it...there was something different about Porsha's headspace that day."
The women's season-long rivalry was on full display during the reunion, and the insults were flying (our favorite: Williams calling Moore "a sl*t from the '90s"), but things erupted when Moore directed her bullhorn at Williams, which prompted Williams to get out of her seat. They continued arguing until Williams grabbed Moore's hair, causing both of them (and King, who had run over to help) to fall to the ground. "Porsha said she blacked out, and she did. I remember looking into Porsha's eyes, she wasn't coherent," said King in Quinn's book. "...And as everyone was calling her name, she came to life. I saw it in her eyes. She realized what she did, and she was super remorseful. She started crying, kicking herself, screaming..."
Porsha and Cynthia's physical fight
While we have grown to love Porsha Williams, her early years on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" were plagued by her temper and penchant for violence. Not only did she attack Kenya Moore, but she also had other similar incidences, such as when she chased and assaulted an employee, Jami Ziegler, or when she got into it with Cynthia Bailey on a boat. It is the latter that makes our list for one of the most memorable "RHOA" moments, particularly because of how the typically mild-mannered Bailey got into things. And according to "RHOA" executive producer Lauren Eskelin, who was interviewed for Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé," it was the fight with Bailey that caused the network to force Williams into anger management therapy (on camera, of course).
The fight started when Williams called Bailey a "b*tch," though Bailey originally moved away to de-escalate things. That is when she says Williams followed her, sat on a nearby chair, and got in her face. "She was hovering over me, antagonizing me as if to say, 'l know you ain't going to do nothing.' Which pissed me off more because people definitely mistake my kindness for weakness," said Bailey in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." She reflected, "I may have overreacted with some things that I was saying during our first back-and-forth. But the moment I decided to excuse myself and go to the other side of the boat, now she should've stayed where she was and let me the hell alone."
Phaedra's damaging lie about Kandi
Phaedra Parks is currently a cast member on Season 2 of "The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip," but we have not seen her on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" since Season 9. That is the season where Parks crossed a big line by starting a rumor that one-time close friend Kandi Burruss had planned to drug and rape Porsha Williams in her home sex dungeon. The rumor was first disclosed during a fight between Burruss and Williams, though Williams was tight-lipped about its origins. "Porsha kept saying, 'That's what I heard.' But we had no idea who she heard it from. We were all perplexed," Carlos King, who was an executive producer at the time, said in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "Believe me, if Porsha told us she heard it from Phaedra, we would have used it. That's not something you save for the reunion," he added.
Burruss was furious about the allegations, as she felt that they were not only personally damaging, but that they could also hurt her brand (that part is a bit silly, given that she then launched a "dungeon" tour to capitalize off the rumor). At the reunion, Williams decided to spill the beans on who started the gossip, no doubt because she was sick of taking all of the heat. Burruss lost it when she found out it was Parks who was the mastermind, and Parks had no real excuse for her actions.
Porsha and the underground railroad
One of our favorite things about Porsha Williams — in addition to her effortless shade and her ability to turn up at a party — is her ditzy side. This is, after all, the woman who once said that there were 265 days in the year, causing us to burst into laughter alongside co-star NeNe Leakes. But no funny Williams moment is as ingrained in our brains as when she gave us her take on the underground railroad. Her ignorance is, of course, exacerbated by the fact that she is the granddaughter of renowned civil rights activist Hosea Williams, who worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In the scene in question, the cast was visiting the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, which they were told was a part of the underground railroad. "There has to be an opening for the railroad at some point," Williams said in front of her confounded castmates. "'Cause somebody's driving the train. It's not electric like what we have now." Their tour guide laughed, but the rest of the women were more shocked than anything. They told her it was not a train, to which Williams replied, "Just a railroad?" It took her a long time to get it, because she thought that someone had built a tunnel of some sort. "It's almost hurtful to me to watch her be so dumb," said co-star Kenya Moore in her confessional. We have to applaud Williams for being open to learning, as she has become a full-on social justice advocate.
Shereé pulling Kim's wig
Kim Zolciak-Biermann's wigs have been a big topic of discussion on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." At one point, NeNe Leakes was even referring to her as "wig," and Leakes' dismissive "bye wig" still makes us howl with laughter. And sure, Zolciak-Biermann's wigs have improved over the years — they are no longer what Leakes called "Party City wigs" on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" – but they are still one of her defining features. As such, the Season 2 episode where Zolciak-Biermann's wig gets pulled remains one of "RHOA's" most memorable moments.
In the episode, which occurred early in the season, Zolciak-Biermann met up with Leakes and Shereé Whitfield at a restaurant called FAB. The purpose of this meeting was for Leakes and Whitfield to confront Zociak-Biermann about things they had heard she said about them. The meal started out okay but quickly took a left turn, to the point where all of the other people in the restaurant started looking at them. When Zolciak-Biermann told Whitfield, "go f**k yourself," and bolted for the door, Whitfield followed suit. The two started screaming at each other, and things got especially nasty when Whitfield laid her hands on Zolciak-Biermann's wig. "That wasn't a pull, it was a shift," Whitfield clarified in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "I was just wanting to get her attention. Kim was walking away from me and you grab a girl's wig, that definitely gets her attention." It got our attention, that's for sure.
Kenya's twirling exit
Though Kenya Moore and Porsha Williams both joined "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" in Season 5, they did not bond over being the new girls. In fact, the two would develop one of the show's longest-lasting rivalries. "They billed her to be this really prominent Atlanta socialite, and when I met her in person I was like, oh my God, she's like a total airhead cheerleader," Moore said of her first impression of Williams, in Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." The pair had their first big issue when Williams hosted a charity event that Moore attended, wherein Moore was introduced as a former "Miss America" and not "Miss USA."
Moore was upset enough that she went outside, where Moore and Williams fought about the perceived insult. The quarrel did not end there, however, and the tension continued to reverberate throughout the season, leading to Moore's iconic twirling exit. Feeling once again disrespected, this time at a dinner, she twirled in circles and proclaimed herself "Gone with the Wind fabulous." "It was like, you can't take away my accomplishments from me. I will always be relevant," said Moore in Quinn's book. "And not long after it aired, people around me started saying it. I got my life when Beyoncé quoted it after performing at the Super Bowl with Destiny's Child." In true "Housewives" fashion, Moore released a song and music video around the catchphrase. She also once produced a TV pilot called "Life Twirls On," and even has a dog named Twirl.
Claudia and NeNe's Puerto Rico showdown
Claudia Jordan was a great addition to "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," and we are still ticked that she only got one season to show what she could bring to the show. According to Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé," Jordan was originally cast in a friend-of role, which is why there was so little of her personal life shown on the show. It was her epic showdown with reigning queen NeNe Leakes that changed the tide and convinced producers she needed to be a full-time cast member.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think, 'This one scene is going to make me a Housewife.' But by that point, I had filmed enough to know that these girls turn it up when the cameras come on," said Jordan in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "And have a lethal mouth. I will say what everyone's thinking. So I dug in." Dig in, she did. The fight occurred when the women were on vacation in Puerto Rico, and while both sides got their reads in, Jordan was relentless. She brought up everything from Leakes' diction to her past as a stripper to her long-ago arrest. Her meanest lines included "when you were my age, you had edges," and "you should have a little less spaghetti in your diet." Kandi Burruss and Cynthia Bailey both gave it up for Jordan in their confessionals. "Stop the tape, stop. What you are witnessing right now is NeNe Leakes getting read," said Bailey.
BOLO coming to play
"The Real Housewives of Atlanta" stars have introduced us to a variety of men — from Dwight Eubanks to Miss Lawrence to DonJuan Clark — but they generally have to appear multiple times for them to truly register in the overall "Housewives" zeitgeist. That is, unless they are a male stripper named BOLO. BOLO was in only one episode of Season 13, entitled "What Happened in the Dungeon?" But he became a big topic throughout the rest of the season and has thus marked his place in the "RHOA" history books. Shockingly, BOLO told revealed on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" that he didn't even watch his memorable appearance.
From the probably-fake Chanel outfit to the reportedly massive, um, member, BOLO spurred plenty of conversation. But the biggest piece of gossip was whether he had sex with one or more of the cast members, a debate that lingered past this one episode. Since that happened off camera, we will focus on what we did get to see – which was BOLO in a cage in the backyard, as part of Cynthia Bailey's bachelorette celebration. This was planned by Kandi Burruss.
We also saw BOLO perform for the women, and the party continued into the wee hours. Many of the cast members and friends — including Drew Sidora, Porsha Williams, Tanya Sam, LaToya Ali, and Shamea Morton — were bumping and grinding, while Kenya Moore threw a fit and went to bed.
The entire Pillow Talk night
We can't isolate just one memorable moment from Season 6's "Pillow Talk" night, because so many juicy things happened that evening — as one would expect when you host a coed pajama party and invite a bunch of thirst reality television stars. The party was planned by NeNe Leakes, who told the camera, "It's almost like a free couple counseling session, in pajamas" (spoiler alert: it wasn't). The whole cast and a few extras joined in a modest hotel to sit around and answer random questions in front of the group, and even Kenya Moore came, despite not having a romantic partner (she brought her gay friend Brandon). The party was so good that it was spread between two episodes.
The first drama began when Leakes told the party that Moore said something shady about guest Christopher Williams' marriage. People got up and into each other's faces and when Christopher tried to grab Moore, her friend Brandon defended her. This caused Cynthia Bailey's husband Peter Thomas and Phaedra Parks' husband Apollo Nida to get involved, and for some reason, they slammed Brandon down by the neck. But it got worse.
Kandi Burruss completely snapped (this occurred in the second episode) because of things she had heard Natalie say about her now-husband, Todd Tucker. Burruss then got into it with Bailey and Thomas, the messengers, and ultimately lost her cool when Bailey's sister Mal pushed her. Any longtime "RHOA" viewer knows that scary Kandi rarely comes out, but when she does, it is like the "She-Hulk."
Shereé taking on a party planner
"Who gon' check me, boo?" is one of the most iconic "Real Housewives" quotes of all time, and if you don't believe us, just go Google it. Shereé Whitfield's classic comeback is on all sorts of merch, Bravo-created and from independent sellers on sites like Etsy. The GIF is everywhere, as it should be, given how well Whitfield's takedown of party planner Anthony Shorter has held up over the years. The fight happened in Season 2 of "RHOA," but it remains an oft-discussed moment. When Whitfield was interviewed for Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé," she explained that she felt Shorter was over-promising things that he could not deliver. She did not like how she was being left out of the planning and she especially did not like how she was being talked to by the self-proclaimed "top-level executive."
"I met him at his pretend office and the second I got there, I knew this was going to be some mess. There was tension in the air," Whitfield said in Quinn's book. "So, of course, when I sat down with him, it didn't take darn near nothing for him to explode on me." The pair argued about matters of respecting time, but their exchange was boiling hot when Whitfield called Shorter out for over-exaggerations, like promising a helicopter entrance. "You need to watch yourself before you get checked," Shorter said. Whitfield's amazing comeback came with top-tier nonverbals too — an eyebrow raise and a head twirl for the history books.
Phaedra's confusing conception timeline
Phaedra Parks truly made her mark out of the gate when she joined "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" in its third season, but the fifth episode, entitled "Hot Mama's Day," contains two of her most memorable moments. The first is when she hosted a pregnancy photo shoot that got very sexual thanks to a jar of pickles. We get that she was aiming to poke fun at pregnancy cravings, but that is not what came across when she and husband Apollo Nida sucked on those pickles. The full photo shoot can be found here, but warning: it's not cute. Pickles aside, Parks' defining moment of the episode was when she tried to explain her conception timeline at Cynthia Bailey's Mother's Day party.
Parks told the women that she was due in July, but that she was going to have the baby sooner, to which Shereé Whitfield responded, "July? I thought you were five months pregnant?" and the others questioned the safety of a doctor doing a C-section on someone six or seven months along in their pregnancy. Clearly, they all knew Parks was faking it and, as per usual, NeNe Leakes said it best. "Look, chicks from the hood, honey, don't even know who they're pregnant by, and they know how far they are," Leakes told the camera. "It was either not his baby, or she got pregnant before she got married." The lying continued throughout the season, but her doctor confirmed she was 40 weeks along at the time of her son's birth, not seven months.
Eva reading Marlo on the tour bus
When Eva Marcille joined "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" as a full-time cast member in Season 11 (she was a "friend" the season prior), those of us who had watched her on "America's Next Top Model" expected fireworks. She was, after all, known back then as "Eva the Diva" and was the source of the vast majority of issues during her season of "ANTM." The Marcille we got on "Housewives" was never as combative, never as mean, and perhaps because of that, never as interesting. She lasted only two seasons as a full-timer, and her list of memorable moments are few.
That said, the network seemed to enjoy her presence more than we did. "Eva was a great Housewife. Not only did she fit in with the cast, but she also stood out. She beats to her own drum," said Sezin Cavusoglu, a Bravo executive, in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." Cavusoglu added, "In group situations, she really found her voice. She didn't hold back from giving her opinions, and formed good bonds with these women, especially Cynthia." One person Marcille did not bond with was Marlo Hampton, and their beef gave us Marcille's most notable scene on the show – a tour bus fight where Marcille read Hampton to filth. "If you don't pick up your göt2be glue and tack it back down and leave me alone," Marcille said of Hampton's wig, which she also called a "little hoodie helmet." Even the Japanese tour guide — who up until then seemed shocked and appalled — found that last insult funny.
Cynthia's friendship contract
Cynthia Bailey appeared on 11 seasons of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," beginning in 2010 with Season 3. She is often more lowkey than some of her hot-tempered castmates, and tends to come across as a genuinely nice person. She's also super uncool, as evidenced by her "Fifty Cint" alter-ego and her attempts at twerking. Perhaps no moment better captures Bailey's well-intended but corny side than when she crafted a "friendship contract" for herself and NeNe Leakes.
As Bailey told Dave Quinn for "Not All Diamonds and Rosé," she came up with the idea as a fun way to test Leakes' loyalty after Leakes snapped at Bailey's man, Peter Thomas. She wanted to make sure that Leakes would not go and run her mouth to the other women, and that their friendship was truly authentic. "It was fully meant to be funny. Even as I was walking into filming, I was like, 'This is hilarious. This will show my personality more,'" Bailey said in the book, reflecting, "That sure backfired, huh? It turned out, everyone thought I was crazy." In the scene in question, Bailey literally made Leakes sign a piece of paper asking "do you want to be my friend?" with terms stating that she would need to "send a notarized letter" to cancel the agreement. It was very reminiscent of the "do you like me? Check yes or no" notes kids pass around in elementary school, but that's why we love Bailey.
Kenya's marching band
Kenya Moore is reality television gold, especially when she is playing the role of the villain. In her time on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," Moore has fought with just about the entire cast (give or take a few) including NeNe Leakes, Porsha Williams, Kim Zolciak-Biermann, Shereé Whitfield, and Kim Fields. One of her most enduring feuds has been with Marlo Hampton, who was not even a full-time cast member until Season 14. Moore and Hampton have been on the outs for years now, after a very brief friendship and a couple of poor attempts at reconciliation. We don't know how much of their beef is for the show and how much is genuine, but the frenemies make for good television.
A standout "RHOA" moment occurred when Moore attended Hampton's launch party for her wig line in Season 12. She said she was not going to come, changed her mind, and then walked in with a marching band advertising her own hair care line, "Kenya Moore Hair Care." Moore loves the spotlight, and we love seeing her get it at the expense of someone else, because that always means fireworks. On an episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," Cohen even admitted, "My mouth dropped," when he watched the footage (per Bravo TV).
NeNe and Kim's tour bus fight
Kim Zolciak-Biermann's entire singing career is a memorable moment in itself — and we do not mean that as a complement. The tone-deaf singer's "Tardy for the Party" and "The Ring Didn't Mean a Thing" might be earworms, but we have writer Kandi Burruss to thank for that. If anything, Zolciak-Biermann owes the world a collective apology for her vocals and we will never, ever forget NeNe Leakes' reactions to them, especially this one. But even when she was shading Zolciak-Biermann's singing on "RHOA," Leakes and Zolciak-Biermann were on good terms. Until they weren't.
While the two "RHOA" original cast members have had many fights, their tour bus conflict is one of the show's all-time greatest quarrels. They had somehow managed to become friends again after their past feuding, but their friendship has never recovered from the Season 3 fight they had as they traveled to Florida by bus. Kandi Burruss tried to mediate but could not contain the dynamic duo, and their fight spilled off the bus when they arrived to meet the rest of the cast. Leakes was upset that both Burruss and Zolciak-Biermann had their employees staying with the cast, and there were a lot of comments thrown around, but the climax of the fight was when Leakes called Zolciak-Biermann's assistant Sweetie a "slave." All hell broke loose after that, but it made for shocking TV and gave us "Bye, Wig."
Kim's first meeting with Kroy
Given their eight-season television series "Don't Be Tardy," which chronicled their marriage and family life, it is hard to remember a time before Kim Zolciak-Biermann and Kroy Biermann were together. But early viewers of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" will recall Zolciak-Biermann's married boyfriend "Big Poppa" and even her fling with DJ Tracy Young (which she has downplayed) that reportedly lasted eight months (per Page Six). We barely saw Zolciak-Biermann single on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" before she met Biermann and fell hard. Their initial meeting happened on the show, too, which was fortunate for us viewers.
The pair's introduction was shown on Season 3 of "RHOA," when Zolciak-Biermann accompanied co-star Shereé Whitfield to a charity event called "Dancing with the Atlanta Stars." Biermann, who at the time was a player for the Atlanta Falcons, and Whitfield were both contestants. "She came to support me...and she was like, 'Shereé, who is that?'" Whitfield said in Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "They definitely hit it off, and have done amazingly well ever since. It's crazy how things have really progressed for them. They have a genuine connection." In true Zolciak-Biermann fashion, her pick-up line was both direct and salacious. "I've never, in my whole life, seen an ass like that," she said, as they shook hands. She then asked him to show off his buns for friend Miss Lawrence — and he did, which is when we knew that they were a match.
NeNe and Shereé fighting about business
Due to the success of the early seasons of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," breakout cast members became bonafide celebrities, and by Season 4, NeNe Leakes had gotten a bit too big for her britches — thanks in part to her stint on "The Celebrity Apprentice" and the fact that she had more name recognition than the other "RHOA" stars. This was the root of her issues with Shereé Whitfield, which came to a head at a small winery in Atlanta's Atlantic Station. "What was interesting about that face-off is, it was the first time we could actually acknowledge and address — at least a little bit — that these women were celebrities," said Executive Producer Carlos King, who admitted to getting the women to agree to a sit-down by telling each of them they were invited by the other, in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé."
The fight was really about speaking gigs and the preferential treatment Leakes was getting from promoter Tyrone Gilliams, who was also booking Whitfield and Kim Zolciak-Biermann, but it became about everything under the sun. Leakes launched into how she was a "very rich, b*tch" with "Trump checks," while Whitfield made fun of Leakes' teeth and asked her, "Wasn't your first car repoed, out of the parking lot at Home Depot?" The showdown happened in the Season 4 premiere episode, but the tensions were still high at the reunion, which is when the women had their iconic "fix that body," "fix that face" exchange.
Phaedra reading Kenya at the Season 6 reunion
Upon joining "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" in its fifth season, Kenya Moore clashed with many of her castmates right from the start. And, of all of her feuds, Moore's clash with Phaedra Parks was the most entertaining, partially because they are both masters of throwing shade and reading people, and partially because there were so many issues at play. They fought over and then created competing booty-centric workout tapes; they also argued about whether or not Moore's boyfriend Walter Jackson was actually someone she hired for the show. But most of all, they fought over Parks' husband, Apollo Nida.
Nida and Moore had an undeniable chemistry when they appeared on screen together, and Parks was none too pleased to learn that they were texting each other. Things hit a boiling point after Nida claimed that Moore repeatedly approached him for sex in Los Angeles. Moore staunchly denied the accusation but was vilified for the entirety of Season 6 and beyond, up until Nida admitted he lied in an early episode of the following season (via Radar). This was right around the time he was sentenced to prison.
The defining moment of the entire feud was Parks' terrifyingly cutting monologue at the Season 6 reunion. "And while she's sitting around, running around talking about my husband and the father of my children, and she spends her weekends peddling through sperm banks, looking through catalogues, to try to find a donor," Parks said. And that was the nice part.
The She by Shereé joggers moment
While there have been a ton of "Real Housewives" who have capitalized on their 15 minutes with products, there are a few who can never seem to get their ideas together. We are still waiting on "The Real Housewives of New York City" cast member Sonja Morgan's toaster oven, but even that has less of a history than She by Shereé, the business that Shereé Whitfield has supposedly been working on since Season 1 that produced the infamous "fashion show with no fashions."
"I had a high-fashion boutique that I closed right before I started doing 'Housewives,'" Whitfield explained in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "With the business closed, I started to think of what was next... So I said, 'Let me start my own line.' But it didn't work out because there just wasn't enough time. We had what, seven episodes?" While she's correct that Season 1 of "RHOA" had only seven episodes, that was 2008, and Whitfield is still working on getting a product out for sale. The most memorable part of the whole ordeal was when Andy Cohen asked Whitfield about what happened to her line at the Season 10 reunion, a full decade after the line was first mentioned. "Joggers," she responded. "Joggers. It's more lifestyle." When pressed on when the athletic wear would come out, Whitfield stuttered and gave us a classic answer. "Probably, more September. For, uh, that is, spring/summer," she said. "September, Spring/Summer." She was also asked about it on "Watch What Happens Live" and said she was focusing on creating a workout DVD.
NeNe telling Kim what to do around married men
"The Real Housewives of Atlanta" was only the third city in the franchise, after "Orange County" and "New York City," but the network was clearly not sure about whether it would succeed, giving it only seven episodes for its first season. In fact, the season did not even have a guaranteed reunion until one of the cast members took it upon herself to convince Andy Cohen. "At that time, reunions were not a given for every show. And an Atlanta reunion was not yet picked up," Cohen said in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "There were questions of, 'Would we fly to Atlanta to do this?' These discussions were still going on when I got a call one day from NeNe, telling me she wanted to do a reunion."
According to Cohen, the reason Leakes wanted a reunion was so that she could confront Kim Zolciak-Biermann, who she felt had been talking badly about her on the show. Leakes got her way, and it was totally worth it, because she used that reunion to utter one of her greatest lines to date. "Close your legs to married men," she said as she pointed at Zolciak-Biermann, who was then dating "Big Poppa" (who was possibly separated but definitely still married). Technically, Leakes said it three times, but who's counting? She repeated the insult on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" around the time of the Season 2 premiere, this time adding "trash box" at the end and making Cohen laugh so hard he had to hide his face with his cue cards.
Shereé getting stood up in Philadelphia
Our list of memorable moments from "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" skews older because, frankly, it is hard to know which of the newer notable moments will stand the test of time. For a few of them, however, there is no question in our minds that they will be remembered for years to come. Shereé Whitfield getting stood up by her boyfriend as she waits at an outdoor table after traveling to Philadelphia to see him? That is 100 percent a classic scene. It also showed us a softer side of Whitfield, who rarely lets her armor drop.
In the Season 14 scene, viewers witness Whitfield waiting on her boyfriend Tyrone Gilliams, a recently released ex-con who told her he could not travel more than 100 miles outside of his home area of Philly (though, as Bossip noted, New York City — where the two were supposed to meet originally — is within such a radius). Whitfield sat and waited for about two hours, but Gilliams did not answer her texts or phone calls, and he never showed. She called one of her daughters and eventually broke down in tears as she realized her man left her to be humiliated on camera. It was a heartbreaking scene. The aftermath, where Whitfield did not want to leave her home or even get dressed, was just as sad... but they can't all be fun shade and catty fighting.
NeNe getting accused of having roaches
The Season 10 fight between NeNe Leakes and Kim Zolciak-Biermann got incredibly nasty, but that is part of what makes it so unforgettable. It all started when Zolciak-Biermann's eldest daughter Brielle visited Leakes' home and shot a video in her bathroom, reportedly showing live roaches. While Zolciak-Biermann showed the video to her friend, fellow cast member Shereé Whitfield, things did not go haywire until the women were on a trip in Spain, a trip that Zolciak-Biermann was not even on. Zolciak-Biermann's absence from the Barcelona trip left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, but when she found out (via Whitfield) that Leakes had been talking badly about her, she lost her mind — first retaliating with verbal attacks and then by sending the video to all of the women.
Leakes was livid in the moment, and things never got better. The reunion that year was particularly messy, with Leakes and some of the others accusing Zolciak-Biermann of perpetuating racist stereotypes. It got so bad that Zolciak-Biermann's husband (Kroy Biermann) even got involved. "I just remember Kroy yelling at me in the bathroom after the reunion, telling me I didn't protect Kim enough, or focus on enough positive things that had happened to her that season on the show," Andy Cohen told Dave Quinn for his book, "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "I sheepishly said, 'Well, there was really nothing positive to focus on.' It was the only time during this whole run where I ever felt like I was going to get punched."
Lisa visiting her brother's grave
The long-time cast members of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" are so good that there are other "Housewives" we have not even mentioned here, like DeShawn Snow and Kim Fields. One of these women, Lisa Wu, did have at least one defining moment: visiting her brother Meho's grave on a Season 2 trip home to see her family in California. The trip as a whole gave us the most interesting picture of two-season cast member Wu (then Wu Hartwell), and the gravesite visit was incredibly poignant.
The main reason for Wu's visit to Los Angeles was her grandmother's 92nd birthday, and she brought castmate NeNe Leakes along for the ride. It was on the trip that Wu's family convinced her to visit Meho's grave, something she had yet to do, but that they felt would give her closure. Every once in a while, "Real Housewives" gets all too "real," and this was one such moment. Along with Kenya Moore's estranged mother refusing to see her in Season 8 and Marlo Hampton's hug with her nephews after their call to her incarcerated sister in Season 14, this is probably one of the saddest family scenes "RHOA" has ever produced. We don't know how Meho died, or why Wu resisted visiting his resting place for so long, but the details did not even matter.
Cynthia's marriage license going missing
When model Cynthia Bailey joined "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" in Season 3, she let it all hang out from the start, especially in her relationship with eventual husband Peter Thomas. "Cynthia was really transparent about the issues surrounding that wedding and the way her family felt about her relationship to Peter," said Sezin Cavusoglu, a vice president at Bravo, in Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "There was a lot of ugly, uncomfortable sh*t happening and she put it all out there." That ugly, uncomfortable stuff included both financial and family issues, both of which got quite messy throughout the season.
According to Bailey's interview for Quinn's book, she was at the time unable to pay for her elaborate wedding. But that paled in comparison to the issues she faced with her mother and sister, who disapproved of her relationship and made it known, on camera, that they did not think Bailey should wed. In the Season 3 finale episode, Bailey did indeed walk down the aisle — but not before a series of disasters, including an unfinished wedding dress, unfinished bridesmaids dresses, an unpaid liquor tab, and a big fight with the family who tried to talk her out of the wedding. We are led to believe they even hid the marriage license. "I want to clear something up. I NEVER hid the marriage license," Bailey's sister Malorie told Radar in 2021. She also said she knew who had it and did not immediately tell her sister, something for which she has apologized.
The Snakegate eruption
Unlike some other cities in the "Real Housewives" canon (here's looking at you "Beverly Hills"), "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" is not known for one big storyline dominating an entire season. Season 12 is an exception, as the "Snakegate" scandal became the dominant conversation for many (too many) episodes. The basic gist was that someone told NeNe Leakes that they had a recorded conversation featuring Cynthia Bailey badmouthing her. More than half of the season was spent discussing whether the audio existed and, if it did, who the "snake" was that secretly recorded Bailey.
While "Snakegate" was a season-long issue, the biggest eruption occurred in a hotel room in Toronto around the mid-season point. This is when it was finally confirmed that Leakes' "friend" Yovanna Momplaisir was the snake, and there were at minimum three huge fights. Bailey fought with then friend-of Marlo Hampton, who called her a "bald-headed scallywag," while Porsha Williams nearly got physical with Momplaisir after she turned the conversation toward Williams' boyfriend. Leakes and Kenya Moore then went at it, with Leakes having to be restrained by a producer to avoid a physical brawl. Momplaisir later said on the Season 12 reunion that Leakes had requested a recording, but that she did not do it. "Not only did she ask me to record Ms. Cynthia Bailey, but she told me she wanted me to record every single body that's sitting right here," she said (via the Daily Mail). "She wanted proof that everybody else is equally talking sh*t about her the way she talks sh*t about everybody else."
NeNe accosting a cameraman
There have been a few instances of NeNe Leakes seeming like she was going to get violent on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," but Leakes has for the most part been able to keep that side of her off camera. For instance, when she allegedly choked castmate Kim Zolciak-Biermann outside a Target, she was sure that cameras were not filming her (as told by producer Carlos King in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé").
In Season 11, however, Leakes let her guard drop and showed America how far her temper can take her when she physically attacked a camera operator because he tried to film inside her closet. "You saw her grab the cameraman's shirt but there was a lot more that night," said Marlo Hampton in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "There was yelling and fussing. It was a whole lot."
It all went down at Leakes' "Bye, Wig" party, after Kandi Burruss and Porsha Williams attempted to take a peek inside Leakes' bedroom closet. When the cameraman followed them, Leakes grabbed him by the shirt and possibly roughed him up. On the reunion, Williams even claimed one crew member had to be sent to the hospital because he was in such poor shape after Leakes allegedly dragged him against a wall. He may have also lost a tooth, according to Burruss, though Leakes tried to diminish it all during the reunion conversation. Leakes later minimized the incident again in an interview with Essence, but we would love to hear from the cameraman about how he feels.
Kenya going into Shereé's basement
While it is nice to see them as the friends they now are (for the time being), Kenya Moore and Shereé Whitfield were at odds for years. The weirdest part of their feud was how much of it became about their dueling homes, both in the same area and both under construction at the same time. The tension began as soon as Whitfield returned to the scene as a "friend" in Season 8 of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." "I hadn't even met Kenya before we started filming, and she came for me right away," Whitfield said in Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé."
At some early points, it seemed like light fun — "I just lit her up about her house. I was building mine not too far away and everyone was talking about it," Moore told Quinn – but the blows got lower and lower. Moore started calling Whitfield's "Chateau Shereé" by her mother's name, "Chateau Thelma," and also dubbed it "Chateau She Can't Pay." Whitfield got her digs in, too, insulting everything from the size of "Moore Manor" to its lack of baseboards and trim. But the most memorable moment occurred when Moore ventured down into Whitfield's unfinished basement without permission during a housewarming party. Things came full circle in Season 14 when Whitfield finally gave Moore a tour of her finished basement.
The Destin, Florida talent competition
We have a lot of brawls and emotional moments on this list, but here is one that was nothing but pure fun: the talent competition the cast had while on a trip to Destin, Florida in Season 8. With bad weather outside and the ladies trapped in their vacation rental, NeNe Leakes came up with the brilliant idea to host a game entitled "B*tch stole my talent," which would pit the ladies against each other in various rounds of talent showcasing. She enlisted Porsha Williams as her co-host and told the rest of the women to judge their hosting duties appropriately.
Round one was a "fashion competition" between friend-of Marlo Hampton, known for her designer fashions, and fellow friend-of Tanya Sam, who started weak but pulled out the win with a little striptease down to a bathing suit and a whole lot of shade. In the "modeling competition," professional model Cynthia Bailey iced out fellow model Eva Marcille by winning all of the votes. Finally, though she won her season of "The Masked Singer," Kandi Burruss lost the "singing competition" to fellow "Housewife" Shamari DeVoe, who is part of the singing group Blaque. Oh, and Leakes won for hosting, but was there ever any question about that? The ladies of "Atlanta" may know how to throw daggers, but they also know how to have a good time, which is exactly what this was.
Kenya and Kim fighting
Kim Zolciak-Biermann was a great original cast member on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," but she was a major buzzkill when she returned as a guest in Season 9 and then as a "friend" for Season 10. Her Season 10 blowout fight with Kenya Moore rounds out our list of memorable moments, however, because it was so undeniably explosive that it remains at the forefront of our minds. Even the name of the party at which it occurred – "NeNe's Girls and Gays Never Forget All White Party Seafood Soiree" – is so ridiculous that we could not forget about it if we tried. The party was hosted by NeNe Leakes, who somehow became the voice of reason and kept her cool despite the chaos.
Upon her arrival, Zolciak-Biermann immediately started poking at Moore, pretending she did not know her name and talking about her new husband and the legitimacy of her marriage. Cynthia Bailey reminded us that if you poke a bear, you know what you are going to get, so we were unsurprised when Moore unleashed on Zolciak-Biermann. She started with an unfortunate transphobic insult, before referencing a tweet in which Zolciak-Biermann offered up her daughter's sexual skills for concert tickets. "Worry about your life and the daughter you pimp out for John Legend tickets," Moore said, causing Zolciak-Biermann to literally charge at her. You know a fight is good when there is a "to be continued..." and, when things picked up in the following episode, it got even more tense after Zolciak-Biermann smashed a glass on a table.