Nene Leakes turned Shereé Whitfield’s negative into a positive. (@neneleakes/Instagram)
Noted bone collector Shereé Whitfield tried to use Nene Leakes’ 1992 mugshot against her on Sunday night’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Well, ever the hustler, Leakes has now turned that into a money maker.
The reality star-turned-comedian announced on Instagram Wednesday, Jan. 17 that she’s selling off the shoulder t-shirts adorned with the mugshot exclusively at Swagg Boutique ATL. The item goes on sale this week, according to one post, but no exact date has been revealed.
“Your past does NOT determine your future,” Leakes wrote in an IG caption. “From trial to triumph🙌🏾 I hope that I can inspire anybody to embrace and not be ashamed of what your past has made you become today!”
Leakes has addressed an arrest in her youth in her 2009 autobiography, “Never Make the Same Mistake Twice.” She said she was arrested in her mid-twenties and charged with a misdemeanor for shoplifting.
However, a 2014 Star magazine report said Leakes, then known as Linnethia Johnson, was arrested at age 25. Documents the magazine obtained from Athens-Clarke County Superior Court stated Leakes was charged with three felony and one misdemeanor counts of theft of services from a phone company.
The young Leakes took a plea deal and was placed on probation but was arrested three more times for violations.
Regardless, Leakes isn’t sweating her 25-year-old mugshot since Whitfield’s boyfriend, Tyrone Gilliams, is currently in federal prison for alleged wire fraud and securities fraud.
“A mugshot does not equal 10 years in prison for doing a Ponzi scheme,” she says on “Watch What Happens Live” Sunday, Jan. 8. “I ain’t spent a day in jail doin’ nothing, honey. … [Gilliams] got 10 years with the feds, honey. That’s a whole ‘nother situation. And by the way, Shereé needs worry about her own mugshot. Her son got a mugshot and her man got a mugshot so please don’t call out no mugshots. Let’s be for real. She had hers expunged. She was stealing out the store, remember?”
The last dig refers to 19-year-old Whitfield’s alleged shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue.
