Real Housewives of Atlanta reality star NeNe Leakes is opening up for the first time since news broke about her son’s recent arrest for drugs and lying to police.
In a recent Reality with the King podcast, the 55-year-old New York native stated that her Bryson Rashard Bryant, 33, remains at the Gwinnett County Jail on a $6,100 bond. He faces multiple charges, including violation of probation in two cases, possession of a scheduled II controlled substance, loitering/prowling and giving a false name, address or birthdate.
“I spoke to him on the phone,” she told the show’s host and Housewives producer Carlos King. “I think he’s doing OK.”
She further acknowledged that her son has an ongoing issue with drugs. In his latest run-in with the law, he was found with “a small plastic bag that contained a white powdery substance” that tested “positive for fentanyl,” police state.
“He needs rehabilitation,” Leakes explained. “He needs a lot of counseling. Like many families out there, I have family members that are struggling with drugs and certain addictions. He has an addiction. He’s been struggling with it for years. He’s been in rehab for a couple of times and he still has come back out and relapsed.”
She added that there is not much she can do for him unless he is ready to help himself towards a path of recovery.
“As a mom just to watch it, my hands are tied,” the Broadway star said. “[There’s] not much that I can do. For people who have had children or family members that have been on drugs, they know that they have to be ready. They have to simply be ready.”
She continued: “I’ve spent so much money on trying to get Bryson where he needs to be,” she adds. “But every time I’ve sent him off is because I said, ‘You are getting your ass up and we are sending you off.’ But I learned through counseling myself that he has to say, ‘I’m ready to go,’ not me making him go. So until Bryson is ready to make a change, [there’s] nothing I [can] do.”
She further confessed that in the past, she was desensitized to Bryant’s issues.
“He is [33] years old, he’s an adult. He has three children — three beautiful children — who I adore. He has a wife. As a mother, I would never wash my hands of my child, right? But, I’m kind of numb to it because it’s been happening for so many years. I’m just really kind of numb to the situation.”
On Thursday, Shine My Crown reported that Bryant was charged after he was caught lying to police about illegal drugs he had on his person.
According to Gwinnett County Police, Bryant was arrested on the 2400 block of Farmington Court, in an Atlanta suburb after police arrived at the scene where a suspicious vehicle was found parked outside a home.
When police searched the vehicle, they say they found a “small plastic page that contained a white powdery substance” inside the console of the car. An officer identified the substance as either cocaine or fentanyl. A drug test revealed that the drug was fentanyl.
Bryant was then apprehended and taken to the Gwinnett County Jail without incident. He was charged with possession of a Schedule II-controlled substance, loitering and prowling.
The suspect was later released on bond but then police found that he had lied to police stating that his name was Brentt Leakes, his younger half-brother. He also provided the wrong address, providing the address to the home his family lived in years ago.
Detectives would later find that he lied about his identity and found that he was wanted for a probation violation. He was then taken back into custody and charged with giving a false name to a law enforcement officer.
