Most people may recognize Kandi Burruss from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. She is also a singer, and won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for her contributions on the TLC song “No Scrubs.”
This season, Burruss will be competing on Celebrity Big Brother. It’s clear to many that she has built an empire with a number of sources of income, but just how much money does she have? What’s Burruss’ net worth?
Here’s what you need to know.
1. She Has an Estimated Net Worth of $35 Million
Kandi Burruss. (Getty)
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Burruss has an estimated net worth of $35 million. She makes around $450k per season of RHOA.
The outlet notes that a majority of her income comes from being a former member of the band Xscape, and as a songwriter and record producer.
For her songwriting, Burruss has won a Grammy– some of her hits were “No Scrubs” for TLC, “Bug a Boo”, “Bills, Bills, Bills”, and “The Writings on the Wall” for Destiny’s Child.
Asked by Time if she made a big purchase with her first paycheck, Burruss said, “[Xscape] signed our first record deal when I was 16. I only got a few thousand dollars, but my mom was like, ‘OK, we’ll put this with my money’ and we purchased the house across the street from where we lived. That was my first investment — with my mom.”
She goes on to say, “After that, I just really wanted to save. As soon as we had our first hit record and we started doing shows, all my other group members went and bought Benzes and different things. But I wanted to see a certain amount of money in my bank account. I remember I was like, “I will not spend a dollar until I can see $100,000 in my account.”
2. She’s Vying for $250,000 on Celebrity Big Brother
Burruss is vying for $250,000 on this season of Celebrity Big Brother. According to EW, Burruss’ son didn’t want to appear on the show.
And when he voiced his concerns, Burruss considered backing out of the show. However, she decided to stay in it with the support of her friends and family. And how does she feel about CBB? Burruss says that being on RHOA must be way more dramatic.
“I feel like the drama on the Real Housewives is way worse… The Real Housewives of Atlanta? Oh, that drama on Celebrity Big Brother is not going to compare to our drama, okay? So if I can do RHOA, I definitely can do this.”
3. She Has Appeared on a Number of Television Shows
Kandi Burruss of Xscape performs onstage during the 2018 Essence Festival presented By Coca-Cola – Day 2 at Louisiana Superdome on July 7, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Along with her role on Real Housewives of Atlanta, Burruss has appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Are We There Yet?, Single Ladies, and even had a Bravo spinoff show called The Kandi Factory.
Asked by Time show she leverages RHOA to make more money, Burruss says, “When you’re first starting on reality TV, they’re not really trying to pay you much. I was like, “It’s not like I need them to be popular. I’ve already been on TV and in music before.” I didn’t think it was going to do anything for my career. I did it on a fluke. I gained a lot of fans that year, but my thoughts were [that] the money has to match my popularity. I had to make it bigger than the show.”
She adds that it was always her intention to build an empire with different income streams. “I wanted to have businesses outside of music that were still poppin’.”
4. She Owns a Sex Toy Company
In the words of Time, Burruss is a “bona fide businesswoman.”
Along with being a reality star and Grammy winner, she owns a sex toy company called Bedroom Kandi. You can check it out here on Burruss’ webpage. Burruss sells a number of products on the site, like massagers, products for him, lubricants, and much more. Check it all out here.
Speaking to Time about her many business endeavors, Burruss says, “What’s the point of having this huge platform if you are not benefiting off of it?”
Asked how she thought about money when growing up, she explained, “I was a saver as a kid. That was my thing — I always wanted to make sure I had something [stashed away], you know?”
5. She Is the Owner of ‘Old Lady Gang’ Restaurant
In 2017, Burruss and her husband opened Old Lady Gang, a Southern comfort food restaurant.
By the end of 2018, Bravo reported that Burruss tripled her “Old Lady Gang” real estate in just one year.
In a December interview about the restaurant, she explained, “Right now, we’re just conquering Atlanta… We have three locations now and it’s pretty amazing to go from one to three in a year. So we just want to maintain the ones that we have and just continue to grow, bit by bit.”
The restaurant features recipes from Kandi’s mother and aunts, Bertha and Nora. To date, the restaurant has won an OpenTable 2018 Diners’ Choice Award, and Taste of Soul Atlanta 24 Best Soul Food Restaurants award.