Cynthia Bailey Denies Infidelity Caused Split with Mike Hill: 'This Is Not a Tragic Ending'
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Cynthia Bailey is setting the record straight about her split from her estranged husband Mike Hill.
In her first interview since she and her husband of two years announced they were divorcing, the supermodel–turned–actress tells PEOPLE what led to the decision, insisting that it was a mutual move the two came to "with grace and peace."
"It may not seem like it when you think about divorce or a relationship ending, but this for us is not a bad thing," Bailey, 55, told PEOPLE on Wednesday. "This is not a tragic ending for us. This is two people who have enough love and respect for each other to be truthful about their relationship in terms of asking themselves, 'Are we truly happy together? How do we want to move forward?' And then who were brave enough and loved one another enough to make that choice together."
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"The beauty of the whole situation is Mike and I, we learned from our previous relationships," she continues. "[Peter Thomas] and I were married for almost eight years and we struggled a lot of those years; I didn't want to wait eight years to figure out that it's not woking or we're not compatible as we thought we were. And Mike's the same way."
Adds Bailey, "We always said we never wanted to feel like we were just in this to be in this. We didn't want to settle for anything less than happy. And we just got to the point where, after really evaluating it, we felt like we were better suited to just be friends rather than trying to force something to work that just wasn't working anymore."
Nick Roses
That doesn't meant Bailey doesn't realize the news might come as a surprise to some viewers, who watched her and Hill's seemingly fairy-tale romance blossom during her time on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
"When I met Mike, I jumped into this relationship very excited," Bailey tells PEOPLE. "I felt like he was the male version of me, somebody I could have fun with. And marriage wasn't really something I was focused on, but I jumped into the relationship with both feet because I don't know any other way to do it other than to be all in. That's just who I am."
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The former pair eventually did head down the aisle. He popped the question in July 2019 after 14 months of dating. The two then married on Oct. 10, 2020, in a lavish and romantic ceremony featured on the Bravo series' 14th season.
Not long after she said "I do," Bailey left RHOA, to focus on her "happily ever after."
"I was head over heels in love with Mike and fully felt like in my heart that this was the man I was gonna spend the rest of my life with," Bailey recalls. "We thought we were right for each other, but we ultimately realized we weren't as compatible as we thought we were."
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
Asked if infidelity was one of the things that drove them apart — given that Bailey and Hill had dismissed affair rumors in the past and that Hill had opened up on RHOA about how he had apologized to his exes for cheating on them — Bailey denied that was an issue.
"There was no infidelity to my knowledge. Mike never had sex with another woman during our marriage," she says. "At the end of the day, it just came down to a number of things. And I respect Mike and respect our marriage too much to go into the details of those things, but it was nothing scandalous, we just outgrew each other."
"People say all the time, 'You don't really know someone until you life with them.' And for us, our relationship was bicoastal for a long time. Once we were able to be with each other on a more consistent basis — and we started really, really getting to know each other — we realized we weren't as compatible as we thought we were," she explains. "So we did something about it, simple as that."
Nick Roses
The two remain friends, Bailey stressing that fans don't view Hill as the bad guy.
"Mike is not the villain. Not at all," Bailey says, laughing. "You cannot drag Mike. Leave that man alone!"
"Listen, I love Mike. I respect him. I honor our marriage. I have no regrets about marrying him, I would do it 100 times over," she says. "I've had an incredible marriage to Mike. Mike is my best friend. Friendship is the nucleus of a marriage. It's one thing to walk away from a marriage, it's another thing to walk away from a friend and I don't want to lose both. So it's very important to me that we keep our friendship intact."
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Hill appears to feel the same way, telling PEOPLE in a statement on Wednesday: "I love Cynthia and will always love her because she is a phenomenal woman and a beautiful person. Even though our relationship is ending, our friendship remains rock solid and for that I am grateful. ... I can smile knowing she'll always be there for me as I will be for her."
"I wish Mike nothing but success and blessings," Bailey tells PEOPLE. "I've had the best memories with Mike, and I'm really grateful that we did this the way we did it because we're friends now. And even though it's hard to go public with a divorce, it feels good to put this out there and for Mike and I to be able to continue our relationship as friends and root for each other from afar."
Raymond Hall/GC Images
As for what's next in the romance department, Bailey says her quest for love is nowhere near over.
"Oh, Cynthia Bailey is still looking for love," she says with a laugh. "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."
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That doesn't necessarily mean she envisions herself walking down the aisle again anytime soon.
"Now I don't know if that [love] looks like a marriage again," she shares to PEOPLE. "I don't know what it looks like — and to be honest, I can't try to plan for it because it'll come when it comes. So right now, the love I'm leaning into is self-love. I'm focused on myself and my heart and my career and all the things I want to do. The rest will come."
"You know, life is precious and when you get to be a certain age, you just don't want to settle for anything other than happiness," she notes. "I'm 55 and I, God willing, have 25 more summers left in my life. When you break it down like that, it gets really real and you realize that happiness is all there is at the end of the day. There's no in between. So I'm going to keep choosing happiness because the clock is ticking. I got one life, and I plan on enjoying every single moment of it."
