Yahoo News Amanda Seales Says She Left The Real Because It 'Felt Like a Betrayal to My People'
Amanda Seales
Amanda Seales is opening up about her decision to leave The Real.
Over the weekend, during a candid conversation with comedian Godfrey on Instagram Live, Seales, 39, shared that being on the show felt like a "betrayal to my people."
"I left The Real because it was breaking my spirit ... I was being asked to not talk about certain things that felt like a betrayal to my people," Seales said in the video, captured by The Neighborhood Talk 2.
"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."
Seales went on to share one of her experiences, explaining that she found herself upset after a white female producer was assigned with the task of helping Seales put together a Smart, Funny and Black segment of The Real.
Smart, Funny and Black is a game Seales created that tests one's knowledge of Black popular culture based on the variety show of the same name.
"I did a Smart, Funny and Black game on The Real and I was so excited to get to play my Smart, Funny and Black game on The Real," Seales said, before adding, "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.' "
The Real Amanda Seales on The Real
Seales shared that she felt a Black producer would have made more sense as the game tackles topics more familiar to the Black community
"It's like if we were doing a segment on the Sabbath dinner, [and] she was the one Jewish person on staff, she would be in charge of that segment because she has the most expertise on that," Seales explained.
Seales alleged that the incident didn't end on a positive note as the producer "went crying to someone and said I attacked her."
"I couldn't stay in a place like that," Seales asserted of the ordeal.
Furthermore, Seales said she was constantly receiving backlash from "trolls."
"These trolls used to come for me beyond comprehension and on The Real's
page," Seales continued.
Seales added that her fellow Black co-host Loni Love came to her defense, eventually telling the fans to "leave Amanda alone."
Both The Real and Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Seales announced her decision to depart from the daytime talk show in June, saying she chose not to renew her contract six months after joining as the fifth co-host.
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Amanda Seales
"My contract is up at The Real, and I didn't renew it," she said.
At the time, Seales echoed similar sentiments to what she told Godfrey sharing that she was not able to express herself properly as a Black woman.
"It doesn't feel good to my soul to be at a place where I can not speak to my people the way they need to be spoken to," she said. "And where the people that are speaking to me in despairing ways are not being handled."
She continued: "I'm not at a space where, as a full Black woman, I can 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."
On her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Seales denied any issues with her co-hosts Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, Tamera Mowry-Housley and Adrienne Houghton.
"Do not try to create some false dissension between me and the co-hosts of The Real. Y'all so f—— corny. 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? I did not unfollow Loni Love. I haven't unfollowed anybody," she said. "What ya'll don't understand is grown women do grown women business. That's what y'all don't understand, and what I gotta do with my business ain't got nothing to do with them sisters."
RELATED: Former The Real Co-Host Amanda Seales Shares Support for Tamar Braxton
Before officially joining the show, Seales had served as a guest co-host several times in 2019. Original panelist Tamar Braxton was fired in 2016.
Following Seales' exit, Mowry-Housley announced that she too is leaving The Real after six seasons.
"I'm so proud of what all the ladies and I have accomplished there, including two well-deserved NAACP Image Awards and a Daytime Emmy. However, all good things must come to an end, and it's with a bittersweet smile that I announced that I am moving on from The Real," Mowry-Housley said.
