Gregg Leakes Dead At 66, Husband Of 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta' Alum NeNe Leakes Loses Battle With Colon Cancer
Sept. 1 2021, Published 4:01 p.m. ET
Gregg Leakes, husband of Real Housewives of Atlanta alum NeNe Leakes, has died at the age of 66 following his years-long battle with colon cancer.
"Today the Leakes family is in deep pain with a broken heart," a spokesperson for the family confirmed Wednesday. "After a long battle with cancer, Gregg Leakes has passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by all of his children, very close loved ones and wife NeNe Leakes."
The statement continued, "We ask that you pray for peace and strength over their family & allow them to mourn in private during this very, very difficult time."
As Breaking Celebrity News previously reported, NeNe informed patrons at her Atlanta lounge – The Linnethia Lounge – several days ago that her husband was losing his cancer battle.
She made the heartbreaking announcement that his passing was imminent after a customer at her nightclub accused her of being rude for not wishing them a happy birthday.
NeNe responded by asking the public to have more compassion toward her, explaining that "sometimes, you don't know what people are dealing with."
"My husband is transitioning to the other side," she revealed to the crowd.
Her subsequent captionless Instagram post simply read, "Broken."
Gregg was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in May of 2018, but it went into remission in May of 2019 following treatment.
This past June, however, NeNe announced the cancer had returned, revealing that Gregg was in the hospital after undergoing another surgery.
"Gregg is so-so. He's in the hospital. He's been in the hospital, tomorrow will be a week," she said when asked how her husband was doing during an Instagram Live interview. "I haven't talked publicly about that. This is the first time I'm saying something about it, so yeah, he's been in the hospital. He's been there a week, tomorrow. I'm sure he'll be home in about a week or so. He had to have a surgery, so his cancer did return."
"He's had this surgery before, and he was in the hospital for about 15 days," explained NeNe, adding that she expected him to remain there for "at least another week."