Cynthia Bailey Says She and Husband Peter Thomas Are "Definitely Not Together" Right Now
The #RHOA 'Wife tells The Daily Dish what drove them apart — and if anything can bring them back together.
After a season of ups and downs for Cynthia Bailey and Peter Thomas on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Cynthia has been candid about her marriage in recent weeks, saying that she didn't know what the future held for her and her husband. Things seemed to be a bit clearer when The Daily Dish caught up with Cynthia backstage at New York Live Wednesday.
"The status of our relationship is we are not in a good place. Peter is in Charlotte, and as you can see, I'm in New York," Cynthia told The Daily Dish. "We're definitely not together. I have been taking some time for myself to just kind of figure out how I would like to move forward. We haven't officially done anything at this point, but we are definitely talking about taking steps to officially move forward in a different direction."
After Cynthia and Peter dealt with the fallout of a controversial video showing Peter talking closely with another woman grabbed headlines last summer, the couple seemed to get back on track this season of RHOA. They shared some romantic moments during the couples trip to Jamaica and at home when Cynthia gave Peter a massage during the Season 8 finale.
However, Cynthia and Peter's relationship seemed to be strained once again at the reunion, which she pointed out to The Daily Dish was filmed months after the cast went on their big vacay. Host Andy Cohen even commented that the amount of time they spend apart to work on their business ventures made them seem separated. "Jamaica was fun. We had a good time together. Just because we are having issues don't mean we can't have a good time together. I've been with this man for eight years. We can certainly figure out how to have a good time in Jamaica or any beautiful island," Cynthia said. "So Jamaica was good, but it didn't change issues that we were still dealing with."
Cynthia said that she and Peter were having problems before the video was released, but it certainly "didn't help the situation," especially because of how public it became. "In terms of the video, it was just embarrassing and just unnecessary and reckless on his part. And that's part of the issue that we have as, you know, I feel like as husband and wife, you have to protect each other," she explained. "Something like that, in his mind, was small, but it was huge to me, because it just lives on, and I'm always having to defend it and defend him. And it's not my stuff. He did this. Why do I have to be stuck with defending it?"
But Cynthia continues to refute rumors that Peter has been unfaithful to her. "I've never thought that Peter has cheated on me. I don't believe. And that doesn't mean it's not true. But I just don't believe when I was seeing [the video]," she said. "Now I don't know about today. That's a whole different situation. We're not talking that much now. When all that stuff was out there, I never believed that he actually cheated on me."
Cynthia is still baffled about why Porsha Williams brought up rumors about Peter's infidelity at the RHOA reunion. "I think it's kind of almost weird at this point that Porsha has so much time to focus on my relationship with Peter. It's one thing to just kind of throw out there one thing that you want to say or what you think, but it's been like a couple of years now that she's been kind of running with the Peter cheating rumor and with no evidence, that I have seen, to back any of it up," Cynthia said. "Like, it's not her life, it's not her marriage, it's not her husband. Why does she care to this degree?"
However, Cynthia had a feeling she wouldn't be hearing these kinds of comments from Porsha for much longer. "She should probably get some new material, especially since it doesn't look like we're going to make it," Cynthia said. "So I don't know what she's going to run with going forward. That part of her mission is gonna be over soon."
However, Peter seems to be more optimistic about the fate of his marriage. "When someone tells you that they have you between a rock and a hard place, I don't think that they understand that both surfaces are hard, so you're gonna come out swinging," Peter said in a video on Instagram posted Saturday. "I'm fighting, baby."
Though Peter didn't explicitly address Cynthia or anyone else by name in the clip, he appeared to be responding to his wife's recent comments in the press about their marriage. Cynthia said she hadn't seen the video, but she did say that if it is a message to her, she has mixed feelings about it. "I think he's definitely the kind of man that's not gonna go out without a fight. And part of that is great and romantic," she said. "However, there just comes a point where you just gotta really think about what you're fighting for. Like, fighting to just fight for something is not always smart. At some point, you just gotta know when to be all in. You gotta know when to be all out. And I'm an all in kind of girl when I'm all in. I think that's been clear since I met him, but once I go the other direction, then I gotta walk toward the other direction."
One person who has been supportive of whatever direction Cynthia's marriage goes in the future is her daughter and Peter's stepdaughter Noelle Robinson, who has been handling the situation well, according to her mom. "Noelle has been fine because I've been keeping her pretty close with me. She home schools, which is great for me because I take her everywhere I go," Cynthia said. "She loves Peter. However, she loves her mama more. She just wants her mama to be happy. And happy mama, happy daughter. So I just think she wants me to be happy."
Ultimately, Cynthia said she's not sure if there's much that can be done to save her marriage. "I feel like I've given it all I can do at this point. Now I'm just giving it up to God. My heart is just telling me it's just time to move on. That's what my heart is telling me now. In two weeks, if my heart tells me something different, then I'll deal with it at that time."
No matter what happens with Cynthia and Peter in the future, she said she will always have a special place for him in his heart. "I will always love Peter. The love will always be there. I appreciate the sacrifices that we've gone through. It's made me so much stronger. I will always respect what we have together," she said. "However, respectfully, I just want to be happy, and I want him to be happy. And if Peter being happy and Cynthia being happy doesn't mean that we can be happy together, then I'm OK with that."
Relive one of Cytnhia and Peter's most emotional moments from Season 8 of RHOA, below.
