Amanda Seales says she left The Real because it ‘breaking my spirit’

Six months after making her debut as a regular co-host on The Real, Amanda Seales  went public in June and revealed she did not renew her contract and was leaving the show.

And now the actress and comedian has opened up to disclose some of the thought and experiences that went into her decision during conversation with comedian Godfrey on Instagram Live.

‘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 and to me as a person,’ she explained to Godrey.

The Insecure star continued, ‘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 womanness.’  

One particular occasion on the show raised a red flag in her mind when a White female producer was assigned  to help her put together a segment called Smart, Funny and Black.  

‘I was so excited to get to play my Smart, Funny and Black game on The Real,’ she said before expressing her concern over the choice.

Seales thought those four Black producers were more equipped to work on the segment.

‘I was like ‘Why are you producing this? and she was like, ‘So and so assigned it to me,’ the Los Angeles native, 39, said of the conversation she had with the White female producer at the time.

‘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 went on to clarify her thought-process about how segments and storylines are typically delegated, along with with her own analogy.

‘You assign the different segments to people who are going to be able to produce it to the best of their ability. It’s like if we were doing a segment on the Sabbath dinner, [and] she was the one Jewish person on staff, she should be in charge of that segment because she has the most expertise on that.’ 

She went on say, ‘I couldn’t stay in a place like that.’

Not long she broke the news about her departure, Seales made a point of posting a statement that her decision had nothing to do with her co-hosts.

‘Do not try to create some false dissension between me and the co-hosts of The Real. Y’all so f***ing corny, she wrote. 

‘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.’

Seales had served as a guest co-host of The Talk several times in 2019 before becoming a permanent co-host in early January, joining Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, Tamera Mowry-Housley and Adrienne Houghton.   

Just last month, Mowry-Housley announced she was leaving The Talk after seven years on the show.