Nene Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta recently shared the photo above as she and her hubby Gregg vacationed on the beach.

Nene looks happy and healthy and it clearly?pays to be RHOA’s ‘Queen Bee’!

Leakes has stated on more than one occasion that she was disappointed in the drama of season 7 after what she has described as a ‘miserable season’ on popular reality show. ?And while many have often speculated year after year that each season would be her last, it seems that she’s not going anywhere anytime soon (as evidenced by a recent tweet)…

You may have heard by now about Nene & Kim’s spin-off show (click HERE if you missed that), but did you know that the show was merely a consolation prize to keep her on RHOA??

Details below…

According to RadarOnline Nene Leakes has a lot to smile about these days and her bank account is getting a huge boost.

Bravo reportedly sweetened the pot to ensure Nene’s return to RHOA by giving her not only a spinoff, but a hefty RHOA pay raise too!

Leakes announced her new reality show with Kim Zolciak, called NeNe And Kim: The Road To Riches last week, and a source revealed what the behind-the-scenes negotiations were.

?NeNe absolutely hated Housewives this season. She hated almost all of the other women and wanted off the show entirely,? the source told Radar.

?But she is the most valuable person in the entire franchise and Bravo was going to do whatever she wanted to keep her. So they offered her the spin-off, which she gladly took,? said the source.

Leakes did the bare minimum to promote RHOA this season, but the Bravo execs reportedly didn?t care and the sought to make her return virtually impossible to turn down.

?They want NeNe and so they offered her a HUGE raise. She already makes the most and now they?re giving her even more money per episode and her bonuses will be bigger too,? the source claimed

Leakes was already making a whopping $1.5 million for season 7 and she made sure she leveraged her unhappiness for her upcoming shows.

?NeNe is a really smart business woman,? the source said.

?She even got Bravo to pay her more than they?re paying Kim on the new show. NeNe knows she is the one people want to see and so she?s going to make Bravo pay up to keep her around.

Where are all those Nene haters now?? ?:shock:

What do you think of news of Nene’s huge pay raise?

Is she worth the investment?