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Amanda Seales of HBO’s Insecure fame is making headlines for not renewing her contract as a co-host on The Real. Amanda joined the panel of women in late 2019 and came on as a permanent co-host in January 2020.  Deadline reported that she was offered a new deal but she declined, stating that she wasn’t being defended by the powers that be against “disparaging” comments and that her voice wasn’t being heard. She also cited a lack of Black people in positions of power on the show.

“My contract is up … and I didn’t renew it because it doesn’t feel good to my soul to be at a place where I cannot speak to my people the way they need to be spoken to,” Seales said during an Instagram Live earlier this week. “And where the people who are speaking to me in disparaging ways are not being handled,” she added.

Sources tell Deadline she was offered a new deal, but declined to stay.

“I’m not in a space where I can, as a full black woman, have my voice and my co-workers also have their voices and where the people at the top are not respecting the necessity for black voices to be at the top too,” Seales said.

[From Deadline]

Of course, the internet can’t take anything at face value and must create false rumors that it is because she wasn’t getting along with the other co-hosts. Loni Love is one of Amanda’s cohosts on The Real. Amanda recorded an Instagram story video about a montha ago (that Loni reposted) disputing the rumor that she unfollowed Loni on Instagram. She says that’s not true and they don’t have any problem with each other. She also doesn’t have an issue with any of her other cohosts. Here’s what she said back then and the video is below:

Do not try to create some false dissension between me and the co-hosts of The Real. Y’all so f***ing corny,” she said. “There is a whole pandemic and an uprising going on, and you still can’t find s*** else to do but try and create some kind of conflict that doesn’t exist? … What I gotta do with my business ain’t got nothing to do with them sisters.

Why do people have to always create rumors that imply women are catty and can’t get along? As a makeup artist, I worked predominantly with women and gay men, and let me tell you most of the time, my life was gravy. We rarely had fights and we genuinely respected one another and worked well as a team.

Amanda declining the offer had nothing to do with a lack of chemistry with the other co-hosts, it was more out of a principle. Amanda, it would seem, prides herself in being someone who keeps it 100%. She felt that she couldn’t be fully herself nor say what needed to be said. She also felt that there were no black voices at the top which must have hindered honest conversations around things that mattered to her.

I wish I had a juicy story to report, but I think sometimes we just need to see someone who has a lot to lose actually say no to being used as a pawn and refuse to conform for the sake of money.  I admire Ms. Seales for standing up for herself and on her values. That seems to be a rarity these days.

Amanda has a podcast, Small Doses, and book of the same name released late last year.

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You make me laugh, you make me think, you make me be a better woman… thank you @amandaseales ..

A post shared by Loni Love (@comiclonilove) on Jun 3, 2020 at 9:09am PDT

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