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Cynthia Bailey Responds to NeNe Leakes Dissing Her for Not Attending Gregg's Memorial

By Allison Crist Oct 28, 2021 6:37 PMTags

A respectful response. 

Cynthia Bailey is setting the record straight on where she stands with her former The Real Housewives of Atlanta co-star NeNe Leakes, who recently spoke out about her for not attending the memorial services of NeNe's late husband, Gregg Leakes.

"She didn't even come to the repast," NeNe said during an appearance on the Atlanta-based radio station V-103, which was captured in a video and shared by The Neighborhood Talk. "She did come, like, a week later after everything was done. She came by my lounge."

Cynthia learned about NeNe's comments yesterday, and she used her platform as a guest host on E! News' Daily Pop to respond—but not before prefacing what she had to say with an important acknowledgement.

"Let me just say this first: I know that NeNe is still mourning the loss of her husband," the RHOA alum explained on Thursday, Oct. 28. "And you can't tell people how to mourn."

"However, I do think that—you know, speaking for myself—I came with the best of intentions," Cynthia continued. "I was not able to make it to Gregg's celebration but it was my mission in life to make sure I connected with NeNe once I went back to Atlanta. And I did." 

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In conversation with Daily Pop's Justin Sylvester and fellow guest host Loni Love, Cynthia revealed she was particularly taken aback by NeNe's response because of how well their meeting had gone.

"When we did connect, for me, it was even better than if I had gone to the celebration because I got to spend some real time with her one on one," Cynthia recalled. "We laughed, we drank, we smoked hookah, we danced. I was like, this is the way it was supposed to be, because I felt like I had at least reconnected with my old friend on just a respectful level. And that's why I was there."

"I'm very clear that we're not friends any longer," she added. "But in the spirit of the beloved Gregg Leakes, I wanted to go and sit with my old friend."  

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During NeNe's radio appearance, she also expressed her disappointment with the entire Real Housewives of Atlanta cast, who had banded together to jointly send her flowers after Gregg's passing. 

"Actually I was surprised because the first set of flowers I got was a bouquet from, like, all the Housewives, like they went in together," NeNe said. "I'm like, 'Why do y'all need to go in together and buy some damn flowers? If all y'all work...you can spend your own $200."

Initially, Cynthia explained, that's what she and her RHOA co-stars intended to do.

"Everybody was going to send flowers. We don't have a problem sending flowers," she explained. "That was not even the point, and it really is almost embarrassing to even address the whole flowers situation, but since she put it out there I'm going to go ahead and address it."

Cynthia continued, "We actually thought that it would be more impactful, you know, as a group to say, 'Hey, we actually took time to actually come together and try to figure out this whole flower situation,' because anyone can call 1-800-Flowers and send flowers. So, I thought she would be like, 'Oh my god, they went and figured this out.'"

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The way Cynthia saw it, the gesture "was like a united front on our part." 

"And be clear, the people that did send those flowers, none of us were in a great place with her," she added. "But we still wanted to do something because it wasn't about her. It was about Gregg. It was out of respect for Gregg."

At the end of the day, Cynthia was initially "really hurt" by all of NeNe's comments, but as she, Loni and Justin acknowledged, she's grieving the loss of her husband. 

"The one thing I know about Nene, she's a good person," Loni said. "It's a stage of grief. She'll come back around."

Watch the entire exchange in the above Daily Pop clip.

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