Within the Real Housewives of Atlanta fandom “Give Marlo a peach!” is a motto. Now, in Season 13, the argument that Marlo Hampton should be a full-time Housewife is stronger than ever, and she’s continuing to stand out as a Friend Of without the woman who introduced her, NeNe Leakes, around. But, in addition to Marlo, it could be argued that “Give Shamea Morton a peach!” should be a demand, too.
(Previously, I was also a proponent of “Give Tanya Sam a peach!” but that’s not looking so promising these days.)
The current season of RHOA only has five full-time Housewives: Porsha Williams, Cynthia Bailey, Kandi Burruss, Kenya Moore, and Drew Sidora. In the Housewives franchise, there are between five and eight Housewives during a season, so there’s plenty of room for RHOA to add a couple more.
Shamea and Marlo are the obvious choices. They’ve been around forever (Marlo since Season 4; Shamea since Season 5), they’ve played key roles in memorable drama, and they're already a natural part the group.
During the current season, Marlo is part of the biggest storyline, Strippergate, thanks to her new friendship with former enemy Kenya Moore, who is the current enemy of Porsha Williams. As for Shamea, she’s a loyal friend to Porsha. This week’s episode saw her arguing with Kenya on a bus and snapping at LaToya Ali, “Ain’t nobody talking to you! Calm down. Go back to sleep. Go back to sleep!”
Telling someone to calm down and go to sleep is full-time Housewife material, isn’t it?
But it’s not just this season that has viewers asking why Marlo and Shamea aren’t Housewives. Marlo's been involved in plenty of drama over the years, mostly with NeNe and Kenya, but we can’t forget that one time that she made fun of Porsha’s literal doormat.
Shamea, meanwhile, has been on the show almost as long as Marlo — she showed up when Porsha was cast during Season 5 — and was involved in one of the biggest rumors the show ever saw when Pheadra Parks was making all those claims about Kandi, her husband Todd Tucker, and a supposed “sex dungeon.” We've even seen Shamea and Porsha have a falling out and come back stronger than ever.
All of this is to say, Marlo and Shamea seem like seamless fits. But, do they even want to hold peaches?
“I don’t go to sleep every night like, 'Lord, please give me a peach,’” Marlo told Entertainment Tonight in April 2020. "Bravo pays me well. I travel good. I eat good. I got good benefits. So, Bravo is my family."
Not long after, in May 2020, Marlo shared similar sentiments on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast (via Showbiz Cheatsheet). “I do feel my fans deserve to see [me hold the peach]. But to me, it’s just a title. What am I missing out on? I missed like two episodes this season?”
RHOA executive producer Lorraine Haughton-Lawson has also commented on whether Marlo will ever be full-time. “She may get a peach one day. I think up until this time, it just hasn't been the right time, but that doesn't mean this time won't come,” she said at BravoCon in 2019. "Whether or not she officially has a peach in hand, Marlo is always in the mix … The conversation is always being had about Marlo, and it will continue to be had.” Andy Cohen’s given a similar statement.
When it comes to Shamea, there hasn’t been as much public conversation as with Marlo, but Shamea did previously answer a fan question about her peach status.
As reported by Inquisitor, in November 2017 Shamea posted a photo from her bridal shower that included some of her cast mates. A fan asked in the comments, “When you getting your peach?!” Shamea wrote back, “My husband doesn’t think the show is good for new marriages/relationships so… my goal is not to get a peach. I want a healthy marriage.”
Anyone who has watched a marriage fall apart on Housewives knows that’s reasonable, but that was also over three years ago. Perhaps things have changed.
In January, Shamea had her first confessional appearance on RHOA, and she was thrilled about the upgrade. “Did somebody say #CONFESSIONAL. Yes, I’m excited af! It only took 10 years,” she wrote on Instagram. In another post, she added, “Might not be a big deal to you but it’s a Mutha Lovin BIG DEAL to me! They done finally let me say something.”
The thing about being a full-time Housewife is that you’re expected to share all aspects of your life. With their current roles, Marlo and Shamea can go on cast trips, stir the pot, and even have confessionals, but they generally get to keep their home lives off-camera.
There have been a couple of changes recently, though. This season, Shamea threw a party at her own house for her castmates. And, starting with the previous season, we’ve gotten to see a different side of Marlo as she has taken her two nephews into her home.
It remains to be seen if Marlo and Shamea will ever get a promotion, but it sounds like they have a good balance of privacy and being paid to go on luxurious trips as it is. Still, the current cast plus these two would be a pretty solid line-up for Season 14.
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