Regular people have always been fascinated with the way that the other half lives, and in many cases, "the other half" is starring on a reality show. In the case of the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo, fans get to see how extremely wealthy women live (and how they vacation, too). Some of these cast members have made money from other businesses, and they have really high net worths.
Nene Leakes gets paid the most out of any cast member who has been on the Real Housewives franchise. She has a net worth ranking of $14 million. Let's take a look at her salary...
Nene Leakes Gets $2.85 Million
Nene Leakes is one of the most popular housewives and she appeared in seasons one to seven. She was considered a "guest" in the eighth season and was a main cast member once again in seasons 10 to 12.
According to Cheat Sheet, Nene Leakes is paid the highest salary out of all the cast. She has been paid $2.85 million for the twelfth season of the show, and before that, she was given $2.75 million for each season. According to Ebony.com, in season 11 0f the show, she was paid $100,000 for each episode.
Leakes has had a long and interesting career. She appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice, created her own line of clothing for the Home Shopping Network in 2014, and also had a role on Ryan Murphy's sitcom The New Normal.
Leakes is known for speaking her mind and standing up for herself. In December 2019, when she was interviewed by Housewives producer Andy Cohen and he mentioned that she had already worn the outfit that she had on, she wasn't happy.
According to Today.com, Leakes posted on her social media, "Can somebody please tell me what was the point of this? Like I don’t get it. That was 2 years ago I wore this dress ONCE." She continued, “It’s enough that we #RHOA ladies come for each other and now we have to worry about executives coming for us!”
Other Salaries
According to Cheat Sheet, there are four cast members on the Real Housewives who have been paid a $1 million salary for each season. These include Teresa Giudice who is on RHONJ, Bethenny Frankel from RHONY, and Lisa Vanderpump and Denise Richards from RHOBH.
As for Vicki Gunvalson, who was on RHOC for 13 seasons and appeared in season 14 as a "friend," she was paid $750,000 for each season. That was higher than her friend Tamra Judge, who got $600,000, and RHONY's Ramona Singer, who has been paid $500,000 per season.
Nene Leakes' Time On 'RHOA'
Since Nene Leakes has spent so much time on Real Housewives of Atlanta, it makes sense that she would have some opinions about what it was has been like to film the show.
According to BET, Leakes said in May of the show, “It is messing up my mental space. The only way that I see myself coming back is if I’m treated the proper way. I feel like it’s very unfair and I feel production has a lot to do with that. Production sees what’s happening and they can easily say, ‘It ain’t fair.’” When the latest season had its reunion episodes, Leakes "walked off" a total of two times. According to Bravo TV, she explained, "All this and so much more felt like the rules only applied to me and that I was being held to a different standard than others. But you continue to be the judge."
The Rumor
There has been a bit of a controversy recently as people have said that Kandi Burruss makes more money than Leakes does. Leakes said, “You know, I heard rumors that Kandi [Burruss] was the highest-paid Housewife. So, I don’t know. I don’t know. We don’t know. I think everybody kinda assumes. What I do know is that I like my check. I don’t know what whoever’s making. I don’t really care!” She continued that focusing on her own salary is the best thing to do: "When I negotiated my money, I negotiated the money that I wanted. You can’t worry about the next person, ’cause that’s gonna mess you up."
According to Cheat Sheet, Burruss was making $2 million for each season, and she was given a raise in 2018 and now she is paid $2.2 million for each season.
It's definitely interesting to learn how much the "most expensive" cast member on the popular Real Housewives franchise gets paid. And fans are curious to see if salaries keep going up for these lovely ladies who bring so much entertainment to TV screens each season.