Cynthia Bailey’s engagement to Mike Hill might not have caught the Real Housewives of Atlanta star by surprise, but it did make her “totally happy,” friend Gizelle Bryant exclusively told Us Weekly.
“I texted her this morning,” Bryant, 48, said at Hot in the Hamptons by Ticket2Events in Southampton, New York, on Saturday, July 27, an event cohosted by Kristen Taekman and Flaviana Matata and benefiting the Flaviana Matata Foundation. “She hit me right back. I’m like, ‘That’s so amazing.’”
The Real Housewives of Potomac star also told Us that Bailey, 51, expected the Fox Sports correspondent to propose marriage at some point. “She knew it was coming,” Bryant explained. “She did know it was coming. She wasn’t, like, super surprised but totally happy, and I’m happy for her. If anyone deserves it, Cynthia does. She’s a really sweet girl.”
That said, Bryant isn’t sure her friend will start wedding-planning immediately. “You know, [Hill] lives in L.A., so I think she needs to figure that out,” she said.
Though Bailey saw the proposal coming, she didn’t realize that her soon-to-be husband would pop the question at the opening of Bailey Wine Cellar in Atlanta on Friday, July 26.
“I am so excited and in shock!” Bailey told Us afterward. “I had no idea that Mike was going to propose tonight! He and our beautiful daughters and [event planner] Courtney [Ajinça] got me real good, and I’m so happy that my friends and family were here to witness everything. Wow! I can’t believe it.”
Bailey was married to Peter Thomas from 2010 to 2017. She shares daughter Noelle, 19, with ex-boyfriend Leon Robinson. Hill, 48, was previously married to Camille Hill, and the former couple share daughters Ashlee and Kayla.
With reporting by Diana Cooper