Lara Sophia 
NeNe Leakes breaks her silence on her son Bryson Bryant’s recent arrest and “addiction” to drugs. Find out what the RHOA alum has to say.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta OG is speaking out for the first time about her oldest son Bryson Bryant’s recent arrest for felony drug possession.
During an appearance on Carlos King’s podcast, Reality With the King, NeNe Leakes reveals that Bryson is “doing OK” following his most recent arrest earlier this month.
“He needs rehabilitation,” NeNe tells her former RHOA producer. “He needs a lot of counseling.”
She continues, “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.”
NeNe then admits that her “hands are tied” when it comes to helping her 33-year-old son.
“There’s not much that I can do,” she notes. “For people who have had children or family members that have been on drugs, they know that they have to be ready.”
The Bravoleb explains that she has “spent so much money on trying to get Bryson where he needs to be,” but now NeNe realizes that nothing will change in Bryson’s life until he is ready and willing to do the work to change his current path.
“Every time I’ve sent him off is because I said, ‘You are getting your ass up, and we are sending you off,’” she explains. “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.”
NeNe admits that Bryson’s issues have been “happening for so many years” that she is now “kinda numb” to it all.
The 55-year-old adds that growing up on reality TV was not “the sole cause of ” Bryson’s addiction issues but admits it “didn’t help.”
“They’re having a light shined on them that they did not ask for,” NeNe says. “People are picking them apart because of the job that I chose to do. And so I feel for them in that way. But there’s just issues that he has.”
As AllAboutTRH previously reported, Bryson was arrested on July 3 at a home in Lawrenceville, Ga, for felony possession of Fentanyl. Upon his arrest, Bryson was slapped with several changes, including “possession of a scheduled II controlled substance, violation of probation, loitering and giving a false name, address or birthdate.”
During the arrest, Bryson lied to police and gave them his younger brother Brentt Leakes‘ name. Brentt is the 24-year-old son of NeNe Leakes and her late husband, Gregg Leakes. He also gave police the address of his mother’s home that she sold a number of years ago.
Bryson is currently behind bars at Gwinnett County Jail on a $6,100 bond.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
