Gone With The Wind Hot Mess? Kenya Moore’s 13 Wildest Secrets & Scandals Revealed
Sept. 22 2016, Updated 3:02 p.m. ET
She is the Real Housewives of Atlanta star who everyone seems to hate. Former Miss USA Kenya Moore perpetually gets under the skin of co-stars NeNe Leakes, Phaedra Parks, Kandi Burruss and, of course, Porsha Williams, who infamously lunged at her during the show's 2014 reunion. Now we take a look at the secrets and scandals that have peppered the former beauty queen's past.
She is the Real Housewives of Atlanta star who everyone seems to hate. Former Miss USA Kenya Moore perpetually gets under the skin of co-stars NeNe Leakes, Phaedra Parks, Kandi Burruss and, of course, Porsha Williams, who infamously lunged at her during the show's 2014 reunion. Now we take a look at the secrets and scandals that have peppered the former beauty queen's past.
Before she started causing trouble on the RHOA, Moore used to be good friends with model and talk show host, Tyra Banks. In fact, in a 2014 post on her Instagram page she posted an old photo of them together taken at the Soul Train Awards back in the 1990s. Moore wrote, "Lord…who's hair was bigger mine or my bff at the time? @tyra."
According to family folklore, Moore's paternal grandmother Doris Grant named her after the African nation because – she told People in 1993 – "she was dark and beautiful."
Moore opened up about her estrangement from her mother Patricia Moore in a December 2013 entry on her Bravo blog. She wrote, "Since birth, my mother made the decision at age 16 to pretend she never had me. She has never spoken to me." Twenty years earlier – soon after taking the Miss USA crown – Moore told People about their relationship, "I can honestly say I don't love her." Her mother never commented publicly on the claims.
Moore claims she was the victim of domestic violence when she was a teen. Although no charges were filed against the unidentified man, the former pageant queen told People that she left her much older boyfriend after he allegedly stabbed her with a nail file. She told TheGrio.com, "He was every bit of what you would think an abuser would be."
Shortly after the 2015 Golden Globes, Moore claimed – and later retracted her statement – that actress Lupita Nyong'o snubbed her. Although she later claimed it was a friend who asked to have her picture taken with the Kenyan actress, Moore initially tweeted, "@ThatMattSiegel lots of people who were so cool @taylorswift13 was so sweet but @Lupita_Nyongo refused 2 take pics After 2 movies #girlbye."
In October 2014, some of the reality TV star's fans claimed that she snubbed them when they were turned away from a meet-and-greet. A reported 150 people attended Moore's "assistant search" in Atlanta, Ga. – as part of her bid to find a new PA. However, a source told RadarOnline that the pageant queen didn't conduct one-on-one interviews and some fans were turned away without seeing her, despite waiting eight hours for the privilege.
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She may not be a Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg but Moore has directed a movie. In a 2008 interview with the Black Film Academy, the reality TV star said about the film Haitian Nights, "We lost our director about half way through so part of my job was picking up all the pieces." The movie centers on a newlywed couple who become the object of a voodoo priest's obsession.
Scandal seems to find Moore wherever she goes, even within the charity world. In 2014, the founder and CEO of Saving Our Daughters, Curtis Benjamin, claimed his organization didn't receive a dime of the money that the beauty queen raised on its behalf at a charity event featured on RHOA. But his claims backfired when Moore produced copies of checks that she made out to S.O.D. She told her Twitter followers, "I have video proof more check copies and a contract too so pls do not come for me unless I send for you. #dropsmicrophone #grabsbible2pray4u."
Dubbed the "neighbor from hell" some residents of an upscale Atlanta, Ga. community were relieved when Moore left a mansion she had been renting for $3,999-a-month. However, Moore disputes claims that she had been evicted for not paying her rent. She says that she left voluntarily and, even though her former landlord did file eviction papers, she accuses her of being a "vindictive, cold hearted, evil person."
Moore incurred the wrath of Vivica Fox when they filmed Celebrity Apprentice in 2014. The reality TV star created headlines by allegedly cheekily nabbing the actress's phone and tweeting to her fans. The tweet read, "This menopause id killing me i cant think straight, im acting a damn fool half the time 50 just isnt sexy."
Moore has been accused of pretending to have a boyfriend more than once. In fact her former beau Walter Jackson told the MailOnline.com that they were actually ex-lovers when in 2012 – hoping to get cast on RHOA – she allegedly asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend for the cameras. Jackson opened up in 2014 amid allegations she is lying about dating an "African prince" and that she supposedly paid Nigerian pop star D'Banj $40,000 to pretend they're a couple. Both have denied the claims.
A Bravo source also claims that Moore's lavish lifestyle isn't what it seems and is all just an elaborate ruse to fool RHOA viewers. The source told RadarOnline in 2014, "Kenya is basically broke and she doesn't have any money. Most of the things that she shows off like purses or cars, don't belong to her."
Who could forget Moore's epic fall out with Apollo Nida and Phaedra Parks over their fitness DVDs and their "donkey booty" versus "stallion booty" battle? When Moore couldn't agree with the couple over the contract needed for her to participate in their venture, she created her own, rival workout, which hit the stores in 2013. That April the beauty queen gloated on her Bravo blog that her Booty Boot Camp was ranked higher than Parks and Nida's Phine Body.