Kandi Burruss surprised fans when she recently announced she wouldn’t be returning to The Real Housewives of Atlanta on the red carpet at the Grammys. The singer-songwriter and entrepreneur decided to do a deep dive into her reasons via her YouTube channel and her recap series, Speak on It. After explaining that she hadn’t planned to make the announcement that way, she went into the reasons behind the decision not to return to the show after 14 seasons. One was having time to do the mommy duties she was usually too busy for.
“My mom had to get cataract surgery, I was able to take her and get her eyes fixed and be there for [her] when she came out of there,” she began. “Riley had her eyes corrected because child we can’t see honey. So I was able to take her. I was able to take Ace and Blaze to their annual appointments.”
“Like I was doing real mommy duties and I was loving it,” she continued. “I was like, now, I know this ain’t got nothing to do with making money, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to be there for every one of those things had I not had the little extra time on my hands,” Burruss concluded.
When the Bedroom Kandi owner refers to the “little” time on her hands, she’s referring to the break Bravo gave cast members while they figured out what would happen with the cast. The ladies wrapped filming last summer and had been playing the waiting game since. This is likely because the most recent season wasn’t well-received by fans of the show.
Burruss explained in her announcement at the Grammys that they took too long to decide next steps and that gave her time to think and work on other things. Mommy duties aside, she realized she would also like to spend more time working on projects outside of the show, as she found success bringing a few new things to life. That includes producing a revival of The Wiz and the recently released Prime Video comedy The Underdoggs starring Snoop Dogg. That said, she didn’t close the door on the idea of returning to the show in the future.
Kandi currently has three children. Her oldest, Riley, who she had with Russell “Block” Spencer, is about to graduate from college. There’s also Ace and Blaze, whom she shares with Tucker. He also has one daughter, Kaela, from a previous relationship.