Reality TV Star in State of Shock After Her 23-Year-Old Son Suffers a Stroke and Heart Failure

The son of reality TV star NeNe Leakes has had a major health scare.

Leakes, who formerly appeared on “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” explained the situation in a video posted to TMZ

“This is not the way I wanted it to come out,” she said. “We wanted to be able to talk about it ourselves when Brentt was in a better place. So, here I am because I would rather the correct thing be out there than something that’s not correct.”

“Two weeks ago today, Brentt had congestive heart failure and a stroke,” she said in a video posted Monday.

“He’s only 23, so he’s really young for something like that to happen to him,” she said.

She said likely causes have been ruled out.

“The first thing, you know, a lot of doctors think of when someone that age comes in with that kind of condition is maybe they have done drugs or maybe they have some serious infection, maybe HIV or some sort of infection is what I’m being told by the doctors,” she said.

“Brentt doesn’t drink or do drugs,” she said. “And obviously they’ve tested him for all those things. They also tested him for HIV.”

She said that at one point, doctors theorized her son might have contracted COVID-19 without knowing it.

“It was very scary,” she said.

According to People, Leakes said that doctors worried it could be genetic, citing a health problem she had in 2013 with blood clots in her lungs.

She also said the time of year could have been a factor because last month was the one-year anniversary of the death of his father, Gregg Leakes, who died of cancer at the age of 66.

“One of the things I do know, Brentt was very stressed out in the month of September because that was the one-year anniversary for the passing of his dad,” she said. “He was very close to his dad, and he’s been super stressed out over it. And I don’t even know if that has anything to do with it at all.”

Leakes said her son’s weight was not considered a cause of his health emergency.

She said in the video that in the aftermath of the stroke her son is“struggling with speaking.”

As the video ended, Leakes had a request: “Keep us in your prayers.”

TMZ reported that Brentt Leakes runs a lounge in Atlanta that the family is considering putting up for sale. The outlet said that Brentt Leakes has since been released from the hospital and is in rehab.