After a long and fruitful run on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” musician, actress and entrepreneur Kandi Burruss has decided to step away from the Bravo reality show.
“I decided I’m not coming back this year,” Burruss told Variety magazine’s Marc Malkin on the Grammy red carpet.
A source told People magazine she was offered a contract for a 16th season, but she declined.
Burruss has been a key figure on the show since arriving season two. Already a musician with Xscape and successful Grammy-winning songwriter (”No Scrubs”), she was able to leverage her reality show fame into a variety of ventures, from sex toys (Bedroom Kandi) to restaurants (Old Lady Gang Southern Cuisine and Blaze Steak and Seafood) to a popular web series. Kandi Koated Nights.
She met her husband Todd Tucker courtesy of the show and landed plenty of acting gigs (”The Underdoggs,” “The Chi”) and other reality show appearances (”Celebrity Big Brother,” “The Masked Singer”). She had two children with Tucker while the show was on: son Ace Wells, 7, and daughter Blaze, 3.
The show’s delay in putting together the newest season after its lowest-rated season ever contributed to her decision to leave.
“It’s been 14 seasons, and they allowed us to sit around for a little too long,” Burruss told Variety. “But during that time I had started working on a lot of other things, and I got some nice big projects coming soon, so I’m super excited about those things.”
She and her husband, for instance, are producers of a revival of “The Wiz,” which is returning to Broadway for the first time in more than four decades.
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