Kandi Burruss can’t get behind Bethenny Frankel’s call for a reality TV strike, since she’s already addressed her issues with Bravo directly.
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star shared her thoughts on a former “Real Housewives” star’s call for a boycott against Bravo. Kandi was speaking with ET about her new Photobook cover when she was asked about Frankel’s current campaign to unionize reality stars and strike to demand better contracts.
“I feel like things that I feel or have felt that needed to be addressed, I actually reached out to the network, and we addressed them,” Kandi said of her relationship with Bravo network.
Frankel went public with her boycott campaign
last month in a video message and lengthy Instagram caption outlining her call for “fair and reasonable” terms for reality stars across networks.“Looking into traditional TV residuals is like looking inside “a beautiful mind.” Content used later with no profit sharing & l exploitation of hard-working talent is as archaic as calling empowered independent women “housewives,” Frankel said in part.
NBCUniversal released a statement to Deadline expressing their commitment “to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows.” But Frankel is pushing full steam ahead with her boycott campaign.
As for Kandi, who has starred on “RHOA” since 2009, she has no interest in the boycott since she’s hashed out her own personal issues with Bravo on her own.
“I myself wouldn’t not be a part of that. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to be a part of that,” Kandi said.
“To me, if I’m working with somebody, and I feel like they’re not doing something that they should be doing, I address it right then.”
Kandi went on to seemingly call out Frankel for waiting years after her exit from “Real Housewives of New York City” to take up an issue with the network that helped turn her into a star.
“I don’t feel like you should wait for after. You are not gonna check with them no more, and then come back and try to go for their throat. That’s just how I feel,” Kandi explained.
“So me, any problems or thoughts or concerns I’ve had, I’ve said them. I speak up, you can tell I speak up.”
Frankel is also seeking a union among reality stars, and with Kandi being a part of a union for scripted actors, she’s in support of her reality TV peers forming one.
“That would be nice, if there was a union for unscripted people, that would be nice,” she said. “I mean, obviously, I’m a
part of the union for scripted television and I do think that it’s great to see people be able to get residuals, you know, some healthcare and some type of future. So I think if that was possible, it would be nice.”RELATED CONTENT: Billy Porter Sells Home Because Of The Strikes Blasts Hollywood Exec