Amanda Seales on Why She Left ‘The Real’; ‘Trolls Would Come for Me Beyond Comprehension’
Ever since Amanda Seales was announced as the fifth permanent host on the popular daytime talk show, The Real, she’s been a controversial figure. Thanks to her online presence and her acting career, some people were already familiar with the “Insecure” actor and they wondered how she would mesh with the rest of the cast. Though Seales has plenty of people who supported the new venture, she received much more criticism than praise.
Most fans of The Real didn’t quite greet Seales with a warm welcome. They expressed sentiments that she was too brash for the show and even fabricated feuds between her and her other castmates. It seemed that every episode the comedian was being analyzed and criticized for a facial expression or comment. Though many people appreciated Seales’ candor, others wished the show would go back to the way it was.
Amanda Seales announced she was leaving ‘The Real’
And it seems as if the naysayers have gotten their wish. Recently, Seales announced that she would not be returning to The Real. After only six months of co-hosting the show, Seales turned down the opportunity to renew her contract. Since the announcement, people have been speculating about why Seales chose to leave the show. Now, she’s speaking out about her decision-making process.
“I left The Real because it was breaking my spirit, Seales shared in an Instagram live interview with The Neighborhood Talk, “I was being asked to not talk about certain things that felt like a betrayal to my people,” she continued on. “And then on top of that, I didn’t want to be somewhere that I felt like people weren’t being honest with me and where people felt scared of me because of my Black woman-ess.”
The ‘Insecure’ star had issues with the show’s production
The Insecure star also shared she didn’t like how some things played out during her brief tenure as a host.”I did a Smart, Funny and Black game on The Real and I was so excited to get to play. They assigned it to the one white woman producer, but we have three Black women producers and one Black guy producer and I was like ‘Why are you producing this?’ and she was like, ‘So and so assigned it to me,’ and I said, ‘But why would you be producing this? You’re a White woman. You don’t understand what we’re going to be talking about,” Seales recounted.
Seales also took offense to the number of people spewing hate her way on the Internet. She shared that trolls would comment hateful things on The Real’s Instagram page and it was starting to get to her. “These trolls would come for me beyond comprehension,” she added. Though her fellow co-host, Lonni Love, did hop to her defense, it wasn’t enough to Seales to stay on board.
‘The Real’ fans react to Seales’ statements on Instagram
Naturally, fans of The Real had drastically different opinions of Seales’ statement. Some felt that she was simply looking for attention while others argued that she was right to stick to her guns and leave. Other fans even believed that the show ought not to continue now that two of the hosts have exited. Only time will tell if The Real finds replacements. But, at least Seales is moving on from an environment that wasn’t working for her.
