NeNe Leakes Should Be As Big As Kim Kardashian, Says The ‘RHOA’ Icon

As the most famous face in her family, Kim Kardashian isn’t just a member of reality TV royalty; she’s the queen. And more than that, at the age of 42, she’s also a wannabe lawyer, a soon-to-be actress, a successful businesswoman and a billionaire.

It’s hard to think of anyone who can currently match Kardashian’s pop culture impact.

But according to Real Housewives of Atlanta alum NeNe Leakes, it’s easy to think of one woman who could have surpassed it. That’s because, if the reality TV playing field were a level one, Leakes believes she would have been that woman—and still should be.

“Absolutely,” the 55-year-old said without pause when former RHOA executive producer Carlos King asked her if she thought she should be even bigger than The Kardashians star. She then added, “If not bigger, right there with her.”

Leakes recently sat down with King for a multipart interview on his YouTube channel, and in Tuesday’s second part, she opened up about why that’s not how things turned out.

“I felt like they pushed Kim, and they didn’t push me,” Leakes said of the powers that be behind their respective endeavors in the mid-to-late aughts .

While Leakes appeared on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta at the time, Kardashian was on E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Both of those networks are part of NBCUniversal.

“Kim came on after me, and they opened up every door and every opportunity for her, Leakes continued. “Even putting us together at times and making her much more bigger than me.”

She doesn’t simply believe Kardashian was pushed ahead, but that she herself was actively “pushed back” at the same time.

“I don’t think that was by chance,” Leakes explained. “I think that was the way they wanted it to be. We were together because I was NeNe, and I came out before her and it looked good for us to be together.”

Then Leakes felt as though she’d been left behind.

While Leakes never named names when it came to exactly who she claims held her back, she told King the plot was obvious.

“I just think that they made her more successful, and she was able to get opportunities and walk through doors they just did not want me to walk through,” she said.

One door she believes wasn’t opened to her—or to many of her former fellow Housewives—had to do with promoting their various side hustles and entrepreneurial activities.

“Whenever we had businesses, it felt like we couldn’t show them that much on our show,” Leakes said.

The same couldn’t be said for Kardashian’s endeavors, including her shapewear label SKIMs, or the assorted efforts of her family members and co-stars.

“On their show, all they do is talk about their businesses,” Leakes noted. “All they do is talk about launching their makeup lines or their clothing lines or whatever they’re doing. I don’t feel like we were able to do that as much. So I just wasn’t given the opportunities that she was given.”