‘She Was Not Walking Into a Situation Blindly’: ‘RHOA’ Star Cynthia Bailey Says She Had a Talk with ‘RHOP’ star Gizelle Bryant Over Her Comments About Bailey’s Wedding

In a Dec. 6 interview, Cynthia Bailey says she wasn’t happy with “Real Housewives of Potomac” star Gizelle Bryant’s comments about leaving Bailey’s wedding because many guests were not wearing their masks.

Bailey walked down the aisle and said “I do” to her then-fiancé, Fox Sports host Mike Hill, on Oct. 10 at a venue in suburban Atlanta. What was supposed to be an event filled with love, happiness, and smiles was met with a bit of backlash and criticism as many people called out the newlyweds for having their wedding in the middle of a pandemic.

(L-R) Cynthia Bailey and Gizelle Bryant. @cynthiabailey/Instagram @gizellebryant/Instagram

But, according to the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star, she and Hill had made plans to keep the attendees at their wedding safe. Those plans included handing out masks and face shields to all 250 of her guests.

She said, “We did temperature checks. We had sanitizing stations. We did everything right to ensure our guests’ health and safety, and it all paid off in the end.”

Despite the set precautions, Bryant still did not feel safe and opted to leave the wedding, as she later told Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live” in October.

Bryant said, “In the beginning when the wedding first started, absolutely, everybody had either a shield or a mask on.” She continued, “but then people started eating and drinking, and that’s when it was chaos.”

Bailey caught wind of Bryant’s comments and expressed her discomfort with them when she reached out to Bryant. She said, “I didn’t really appreciate that.” She added, “Another thing that we did for our guests was we gave them transparency. We told them how many people were coming. We told them all the safety precautions that we had in place. So, you know, she was not walking into a situation blindly.”

The 53-year-old added, “She was supplied a mask. I don’t know if she ever really put it on, but she was supplied one.”

“We did everything on our end to enforce the rules and regulations, and she had her shield on the whole time,” Bailey also said. “We weren’t holding people to stay at the wedding if they didn’t feel comfortable. So at any point where anyone felt uncomfortable they could leave. Why stay and be uncomfortable?”

Bailey admitted that she was happy that she and Hill, who had been dating for a little over a year before getting engaged in July 2019, decided to move forward with the wedding instead of postponing it until 2021 because “it looks like we would’ve still had to adhere to the same rules and regulations.”

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top