NeNe Leakes: "I'm Not an Angry Woman"

Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes knows her larger than life personality can be polarizing. But according to the 43-year-old reality star, it's also served her well on Celebrity Apprentice.

"NeNe Leakes is fabulous, confident and she knows who the hell she is," the Bravo star tells the March 3 issue of Rolling Out. "NeNe Leakes is not an angry woman."

Leakes' critics -- and her pregnant Real Housewives costar Kim Zolciak, 32 -- may disagree.

"Some days I'm angry, and everybody is. I just happen to be on television and the camera captures me when I'm angry," Leakes counters. "Just imagine doing a reality show. What would they capture about you? They'd capture you on your period, pissed off, angry with your man, happy, going shopping. But they're only going to put in the things that are most interesting. I'm not an angry black woman; I'm actually a cool ass black woman."

The fiery reality star found a new foe in Star Jones on Celebrity Apprentice -- though Leakes is hesitant to share too many details from their on-camera scuffle.

"I had an experience with Star. I had never met her before. I believe that any woman who gets around Star will find that Star's not cool," Leakes says cryptically. "And when you watch Celebrity Apprentice, you will see some sides of her that are just not cool."

Unfortunately for Leakes, her spat with Jones, 48, was an indicator of further turmoil during her tenure on Celebrity Apprentice.

"It was a very hard show to do. We shot the show in literally 45 days," she griped. "The hours are bananas. You work six days a week, and you rise at 4 a.m. and you get in at midnight. The earliest was 10 p.m., but sometimes it was 1 a.m."

Though she's appeared on two different reality shows, Leakes insists she didn't set out to be a TV star.

"I work with a lot of people in the business who would much rather have fame over the money, and I'm a little bit different," she tells the mag. "Famous isn't anything that I'm trying to be. I'm just trying to work and have money."

Credit: Us Magazine