Alex Martinez/Bravo/NBCU Photo BankWhen a woman joins one of Bravo's Real Housewives shows, her life gets flipped and turned upside down. Gone are her drama-free days of anonymity. Here to stay are the legions of obsessive fans and the public feuds with co-stars. But each housewife's road after joining the franchise is not created equal. For a unique few, they come to define their given city. And their story is one that, for better or worse, you couldn't make up no matter how hard you try.
For The Real Housewives of Atlanta, that woman is NeNe Leakes. From her endless catchphrases to her up-and-down-and-up again marriage, NeNe's kept us screaming "Yasss, honey!" at our TV screens for eight seasons. This is her timeline.
October 7, 2008 - Bloop! The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Bravo's third installment in the franchise, premieres, introducing the world to NeNe, Kim Zolciak, Sheree Whitfield, DeShawn Snow, and Lisa Wu-Hartwell
October 14, 2008 - NeNe announces to the world that she is not to be trifled with after she shows up to Sheree's birthday party and finds herself not on the guest list
November 8, 2008 - NeNe takes on former friend Kim at the season one reunion special and "Close your legs to married men" enters the national lexicon
August 13, 2009 - NeNe, Sheree, and Kim deliver RHOA's first iconic moment when a major argument between the three spills onto the streets, Sheree's tugs on Kim's wig, and Michael Lohan inexplicably tries to intervene
October 15, 2009 - NeNe meets with a man on camera who claims to be her biological father
April 29, 2010 - Life Event: NeNe's husband Gregg files for divorce
October 4, 2010 - Season three premieres, giving viewers their first glimpse at NeNe's crumbling marriage
December 12, 2010 - Newbie Cynthia Bailey has Nene sign the infamous "friendship contract"
March 6, 2011 - Life Event: NeNe joins the cast of The Celebrity Apprentice season four, ultimately quitting in week 10
November 6, 2011 - Season four of RHOA kicks off with one whopper of a fight between frenemies NeNe and Sheree, with NeNe deploying the infamous line "I am very rich, bitch!"
January 17, 2012 - Life Event: NeNe's first of 13 episodes (through 2015) as synchronized swim coach Roz Washington on Glee airs
March 18, 2012 - NeNe begins to reconsider her divorce from Gregg
September 10, 2012 - Life Event: NeNe makes her series regular debut when The New Normal premieres on NBC, lasting only one season
January 2013 - Life Event: NeNe and Gregg announce that they are engaged once again
June 22, 2013 - Life Event: NeNe and Gregg remarry
September 17, 2013 - I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding, a seven-part spin-off chronicling NeNe's second wedding with Gregg premieres on Bravo
January 26, 2014 - NeNe's pajama party turns into an all-out brawl with Apollo Nida attacking recent addition Kenya Moore's BFF Brandon
March 17, 2014 - Life Event: NeNe joins the season 18 cast of Dancing With the Stars, ultimately finishing in seventh place
March 23, 2014 - NeNe effectively ends her increasingly strained friendship with Cynthia when she calls Cynthia's husband Peter a bitch while on vacation in Mexico
May 4, 2014 - NeNe talks over Kenya at the season six reunion, delivering her next catchphrase: "So nasty and so rude"
June 27, 2014 - Life Event: NeNe begins a 10-show engagement as first-ever guest emcee of Cirque de Soleil's Zumanity at the New York-New York Hotel in Las Vegas
July 28, 2014 - Life Event: NeNe launches The NeNe Leakes collection with HSN
November 25, 2014 - Life Event: NeNe makes her Broadway debut as Madame in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, appearing until production closes on Jan. 3, 2015
June 2015 - NeNe reveals she won't return to RHOA for season eight
January 17, 2016 - NeNe makes her first recurring guest appearance on RHOA season eight, proving just how hard it is to truly quit Housewives (or how hard it is for Housewives to quit NeNe)
The Real Housewives of Atlanta returns to Bravo sometime in 2017.