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To date, Nene Leakes has earned the title of "The Realest Housewife" on Bravo's top-rated series 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta.' But on the third season of the popular show, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Kandi Burruss is poised to show just how "real" she can keep it.
Most of the second season of 'Housewives' centered on Burruss' relationship with former fiance A.J. Jewell, who was tragically killed in a fight outside of an Atlanta strip club in the midst of the second season airing.
"A.J. and I had broken up before last season even started airing, but we couldn't let people know that we weren't together because it was a TV show," Burruss revealed exclusively to BlackVoices.com.
She said even after they called off the wedding, they remained close friends and that "losing him in front of the world" was difficult.
"I wanted to stay busy and keep my mind off of what was really going on. I didn't want to sit there and be crying all the time," Burruss said.
The Atlanta native said she wasn't certain whether she'd return to film the show's third season, however. "It was a little stressful with all of the things I went through last year," she confessed. "It felt like things just happened to me just because I was on camera."
"Then I thought about it, and I personally feel like the sh
ow is good business-wise for things that you are doing and your career," she added.One person not returning for the new season is aspiring actress and NFL wife Lisa Wu Hartwell. BlackVoices previously revealed that she would only appear in a few episodes of the show. In the first episode, show credits and the promotional trailer, Wu Hartwell is noticeably absent.
"I have to say that I was disappointed not having her around this time," Burruss shared, adding that she didn't know her former cast member wouldn't be returning until network executives revealed the news.
"This is real sad. I heard she wasn't taping as much, but they didn't say she wasn't going to be on the show. It wasn't until we went and did our photo shoot holding the apple and stuff and [we] said 'Where's Lisa?'"
And though she won't have the 36-year-old former real estate agent around as a shoulder to lean on, Burruss said her relationships with the returning show stars are improving.
She's getting along with Leakes, with whom she had a tiff last season. The former Xscape frontwoman said, "Nene and I are cool this year...we didn't have any more beef. This year [she] was in a different place from last year. I think she was a lot cooler this year."
She called Sheree Whitfield "cool and laid-back."
When asked to discuss the new housewives, Phaedra Parks and Cynthia Bailey, Burruss joked,"They're married people. We're always catching flack about everyone on our show not being married."
"Phaedra is married so that's a good thing to show a woman who is successful in her own right and has a business entity so we can see what she does. [On 'Housewives'] there's a lot of everyone saying what they do, but you don't really see people working."
And of Kim Zolciak, her closest pal out of all of the women, and the most tabloid-friendly, she said, "I love Kim. She's over-the-top, but she is a good person."
In the season premiere, viewers will see Burruss questioning the 'Tardy for the Party' singer about why she came out about her lesbian affair to a major tabloid.
"Sometimes you're wondering if she is doing this for attention or is this who she is, but she's really like that all the time."
Burruss won't be recording a follow-up to Zolciak's dance hit, and is instead focusing on her own music career.
She signed to Warner Brothers/Asylum Records recently and will finally release her long-delayed album 'Kandi Koated' next month. The 34-year-old is also set to tour with Fantasia and Eric Benet starting in November.
The third season of 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta,' which is Bravo's highest rated program to date, will premiere Oct 4.
Reality Bites
Fantasia Barrino
Affiliation: 'Fantasia For Real' on VH1
Side note: The 'American Idol' champion (2005) is a best-selling author ('Life is Not a Fairytale') and garnered critical acclaim as Miss Celie in the Broadway musical 'The Color Purple.'
Al B. Sure
Affiliation: 'Donald J. Trump Presents: The Ultimate Merger'
Side note: While vying for Omarosa's love during the show's first season, the former 'Apprentice' star described the R&B crooner as; "the ultimate romantic and perfect gentleman. He sets the tone for all of the bachelors on how to properly court a woman."
Sharisse "Shar" Jackson
Affiliation: 'Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp' on VH1
Side note: Though some may remember her as the sidekick Niecy Jackson on the groundbreaking UPN sitcom 'Moesha,' Jackson gained international tabloid attention as the mother of two children with Kevin Federline (who was married to pop superstar Britney Spears for three years). All together, she has four children.
Nene Leakes
Affiliation: 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' on Bravo
Side note: The brazen Queens, NY native is a domestic abuse survivor and a former stripper - all revelations she detailed in her 2009 memoir 'Never Make the Same Mistake Twice.'
Terrell Owens
Affiliation: 'The T.O. Show' on VH1
Side note: Alabama's very own football star simply known as "T.O." -- literally let it all hang out for the photo shoot promoting his new reality series, in July 2009. The show revolves around his life off the field as he searches for love, repair family relationships and make the move from Dallas to Buffalo.
Ray Cunningham
Affiliation: 'College Hill: Virginia State University' on BET
Side note: One of the more memorable characters from the Black Entertainment Television network reality ranks, Cunningham has become an openly gay LGBT advocate, budding actor and busy blogger, who was featured in Adam Bouska's groundbreaking NoH8 Campaign, which assembled California notables responding to the state's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage. Cunningham was also cast in acclaimed filmmaker Maurice Jamal's new forthcoming TV project 'Friends and Lovers.'
Miss New York
Affiliation:'Flavor of Love' and 'I Love New York' on VH1
Side note: The upstate New York drama queen competed for hip-hop hype-man Flavor Flav's love twice and was rejected both times.
MC Hammer
Affiliation: 'Hammertime' on A&E
Side note: Stanley Kirk Burrell seems to have done it all: Joined the navy; won Grammy Awards; danced for KFC popcorn chicken; fathered six children; wiggled his manhood in a Speedo bikini on a music video; went bankrupt; became a preacher; and now doing reality TV. 'Hammertime' is a look inside the family life of the man formerly known as one of the riches entertainers of his era.
Keyshia Cole
Affiliation: 'The Way It Is' on BET
Side note: In an interview, thuggish ruggish rap icon Young Jeezy claimed that the hip-hop soul songstress asked him to marry her but he turned her down.
Mo'Nique
Affiliation: 'Charm School' on VH1
Side note: While promoting the movie 'Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins,' Mo'Nique told Oprah Winfrey that co-star Martin Lawrence once gave her invaluable advice about show business.