NeNe Leakes Admits: I Was a Stripper

NeNe Leakes isn't beating around the naked bush:

She was a stripper and she's proud of it!

“Yes, I was a stripper, a woman who took her clothes off and danced for dollars,” she writes in Never Make the Same Mistake Twice. “Let the judgment ensue. I mean, it’s easy enough to do, right?”

Of course, NeNe had a pretty good reason for taking it all off at an Atlanta club:

The father of her son had left her and she needed to support her family.

“My son was in private school, his father wasn’t chipping in for pull-ups or food, I had no job and no money coming in, the rent was past due, and the super told me and my roommate that our condo owner was about to put us out. So I did what I had to do.”

Hard to blame a woman for that.

In the end, Leakes has no regrets about the experience, saying she felt "powerful" in front of the customers.

“With every piece of clothing I took off, the more I got my life back. I worked this body like a well-oiled machine, and every movement got me closer to my goal of financial independence for me and my child.”

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.