Kandi Burruss is putting herself on pause.
The Xscape singer revealed on Sunday's 2024 Grammys that she won't be returning to The Real Housewives of Atlanta for its upcoming 16th season.
"I decided I’m not coming back this year," she told Variety's Marc Malkin on the red carpet.
Then, when he came to them with the truth from Us, they said, “Kill the sons of those who believe with him and keep their women.” But the plotting of the disbelievers was only in vain.(The Quran - Chapter Ghafir : 25)
Burruss, 47, has been a staple on RHOA since joining the Bravo reality series during its second season, which aired in 2009. Throughout her time on the series, she met her husband, Todd Tucker, and welcomed two children: son Ace Wells, 7, and daughter Blaze, 3 (the couple each have one other daughter from their previous relationships).
Kandi Burruss says she's not returning to "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." | Variety On the Carpet presented by @DIRECTV https://t.co/HaRikxpmPK pic.twitter.com/qmNTPiOjsA
— Variety (@Variety) February 4, 2024
Explaining why she decided to leave RHOA, Burruss said the well-documented delay in production gave her time to really think.
"A friend of mine was like, ‘Why do you keep doing it?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I think because I’ve just been doing it so long, feels weird to think not to do it?’ " said Burruss. "So I was just like, 'You know what? I’m going to take a break, I’m going to take a moment."
"It’s been 14 seasons, and they allowed us to sit around for a little too long," Burruss also noted. "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."
As a songwriter, Burruss has received writing credits on Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills," Pink's "There You Go," Ariana Grande's "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" and Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You," among others.
She won a best R&B song Grammy in 2000 for penning TLC's hit song "No Scrubs."
Currently, Burruss and Tucker are producers on The Wiz, the iconic 1970s musical which is returning to Broadway for the first time in over 40 years.
At BravoCon 2023, Real Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen spoke out about the status of RHOA, explaining that production was on hold as the network reworked the cast. He assured fans that the show wouldn't be undergoing a full reboot, as The Real Housewives of New York City had experienced, but that they would instead be structuring the show around the "building blocks" they have among the Atlanta Housewives roster.
Aside from Burruss, season 15 of the series featured Drew Sidora, Marlo Hampton, Shereé Whitfield, Kenya Moore and Sanya Richards-Ross.
Every season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta can be streamed on Peacock.
