Insecure’s Amanda Seales Addresses Issa Rae Feud Rumors

Amanda Seales is breaking her silence on her fractured relationship with Issa Rae and her former Insecure costars.

During an appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast, the 42-year-old actress addressed rumors of a longtime feud between her and Rae, the show’s star and creator. Seales began by sharing she initially planned to keep the details of their rift private and noted that she believed that Rae’s influence as a major Black star in Hollywood was “very important.”

Nevertheless, the actress claimed that their feud started when Rae’s publicist, Vanessa Anderson, wouldn’t let her into an Emmys party for Black stars in 2019. Two days after the incident, Seales alleged that she connected with Rae, who claimed she wasn’t responsible for what happened with her being denied entry and encouraged her to call Anderson.

It was then, Anderson allegedly informed her that Rae didn’t like her and rumors of their feud and whisperings of Seales’ bad behavior on the Insecure set began to swirl.

“There’s a whole narrative that is completely false that people keep spinning. They keep saying, you know, that I’m this mean girl on this set, that I harmed these people on this set,” Seales explained on the podcast. “I just want to point out something very basic. How can I be a mean girl on a set that ain’t my set? How? It’s your show. You are my boss.”

She added, “I don’t even have the capacity to be the mean girl here because you can fire me.”

Anderson and reps for Rae did not return PEOPLE’s request for comment at the time of publication.

Seales said that the cast could feel the tension between her and Rae and her relationship with her other costars began to sour as they continued filming.

“Everybody knows what’s going on. They don’t say nothing to me. And that’s just f—ing mean. It’s mean,” she continued.

By the time the series’ finale came along, Seales says things between her and Rae came to a boiling point.

“By the end of the show, you know, there were just certain scenarios where I had to really always be the bigger person and be the balm to the situation,” she recalled. “And in season 5, [Rae] just came out of her face at me one time too many and I just chose to stop being the balm because the show was wrapping.”

When podcast host Shannon Sharpe pointed out that many actors have felt that Rae’s sets were “empowering” as they’re made up of mostly women, Seales replied, “Oh, I disagree.”

“She wasn’t empowering to me. She didn’t feel like I was needed,” she continued. “She didn’t feel like I deserved to be protected. I’m only giving a portion of the situation. But that was my experience. And nonetheless, I have still always protected her because I felt like it was my responsibility to do so. But it is not.”

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Insecure first premiered on HBO in 2016. The Emmy-winning series followed the daily experiences and misadventures of a young Black woman named Issa Dee and ran for five seasons before it concluded in 2021.