‘RHOA’ Alum Cynthia Bailey Says Rift in Friendship Led to Divorce From Mike Hill
The Real Housewives of Atlanta fans have seen their fair share of breakups, but the split between Cynthia Bailey and Mike Hill was a surprise. They moved quickly, with Bailey speaking of marriage within a year of their courtship and a lavish ceremony in front of 250 guests. But ahead of their two-year wedding anniversary, they split. Bailey says their foundation of friendship began to show cracks, and she knew she couldn’t stay in the marriage as a result.
Cynthia Bailey says she feared she and Mike Hill wouldn’t end up as friends
Bailey and Hill’s divorce came as a shock to many fans due to their love being so public from the start of them going steady. But once they stopped posting one another on social media and Bailey removed her married name from her social media bio, speculation about their split began. But they’ve played coy about what led to the breakup and insist things are amicable regardless.
While discussing the breakup in an interview on Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave’s Two Ts in a Pod podcast, Bailey said the friendship began to lack. “I felt like we weren’t friends anymore,” she explained. “I felt like it was just going toward we’re just not going to be friends if we didn’t pump the brakes.”
Being as though she was married previously, there were certain things she refused to settle on. “This is not my first rodeo. I think friendship just has to be there in a marriage,” she added. “Like, love is great, but friendship has to be there. I truly want to be with my best friend.”
She previously said pressure from Mike Hill contributed to their split
They met on the set of The Steve Harvey Show in a dating segment in 2018. A few months later, they began dating, and Bailey was all in. Hill lived in LA full-time, while Bailey lived in Atlanta, and they split time between both cities. Even after they married, much of their relationship was bi-costal, though Bailey did intend to move to LA full-time. She says spending more time together in the same city and household opened their eyes to issues that weren’t seen previously.
“I think it was a lot of different things. In the beginning, it was the distance, and then it was me going into my next chapter and transitioning into a new career. He’s transitioning into different careers with job situations,” the former supermodel told Us Weekly. “So we both had a lot going on, and honestly, when I left Housewives, I moved to a different city, a different house, and a different career I had to focus on, and I’m in full menopause at this point. I had a lot to deal with…I’m not saying that I was the easiest person to deal with, but I felt like I had a lot of pressure on me to figure it out. And I don’t know if that maybe affected us, but I do know that I had to focus on putting a lot into my next chapter.”
The ‘RHOA’ alum is not closed off to new love in the future
While Bailey says she has “good and bad days” since the split and wants to respect extensive details of their marriage, she is honest that she’s not giving up on love. While she’s not sure she wants to be a wife again, she definitely wants partnership and companionship.
“Oh, Cynthia Bailey is still looking for love,” she said in her interview with PEOPLE, though getting married again may not be in the cards for her again. “I live for love. I’m always going to go for it. Until I get this thing right, I absolutely will never give up on love. And the right person for me, I’m never going to give up on him, because love is a beautiful thing, and I deserve love just like everybody deserves love.”
