Last week, “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” fans got a shocker when it was revealed that Margeaux Simms, the estranged wife of Nikko Smith, and her girlfriend, Merika Palmiste, had been fired from the show. Now, the couple is claiming that they suspect they were fired because the show’s producers are homophobic.
As previously reported, Simms and Palmiste had already signed contracts to appear on season five of “LHHA.” However, shortly after filming began, they were told that they weren’t needed for the show anymore. The ladies weren’t given a specific reason for being fired and what made matters worse was that they also weren’t given an official release from their contracts, making them unable to sign on to do any other reality shows.
In a recent interview with TMZ, Simms and Palmiste spoke about being fired and were asked about rumors that they got the boot because they are gay.
“I don’t really know why. We were really given no explanation. But, you know, what are you supposed to think?” Simms said.
Simms then spoke about her relationship with Palmiste and claimed that it’s not a fake romance for TV cameras.
“I’m in the middle of a divorce with Nikko and then I exit with my girlfriend. We wanna get married and have kids. This is not some fake relationship for TV,” Simms said.
Simms was asked if they really haven’t been released from their contracts yet.
“Yeah, we wanna move on. We have other things that we’re doing. We have other things that are going on. We just … I don’t know. I guess reality TV is a crazy world,” Simms said.
Considering that the “Love & Hip Hop” franchise has featured gay and lesbian couples in many of their shows, we have a hard time believing that producers made the decision to fire the couple based on alleged homophobia. In any case, this sounds like a messy contractual battle for Simms, Palmiste and VH1.
