This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to the most dramatic podcast ever. I am Chris Harrison, coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas. And I always get excited when I have a great guest on, but it's safe to say I have never been this excited because this woman is someone who came into my life a couple of years ago, a few years ago, and it was just that aha, that light
bulb moment that I just knew she was special. I knew she came into my life for a reason, and she just has this energy in this light that well, you guys, you'll be able to tell. It's Cynthia Bailey from Real Housewives of Atlanta and joining me from her house. Well where else would she be Atlanta, of course, the home of Cynthia Bailey. Cynthia joins us now here on the most dramatic podcast ever. Cynthia, it is so good to see you again.
It's amazing to see you, Chris. We had such a great time. I'm the one and only time we ever hung out.
We did. We hung out. We both had a ided you still do. Probably we had to deal with seagrums. The drink maker you had yours. Yours was the Georgia Peach or something Peach Bellini, and I was yes, and I was doing this tropical rose. So you and I went to this huge sales meeting. Were we in Philly?
I think we were in Philly? Where were we?
I think we were in phil But anyway, so I met you and was instantly taken by just what a beautiful human being you are. And we ended up having dinner that night and just talked and talked and talked, and I'm like, this woman is so brilliant, She's got a thousand side hustles, she's so confident. You just have this energy about you, and I will just I just want to say this publicly. If you think Cynthia Bailey's beautiful, you have no idea until you're in the same room with her.
Oh, thank you so much. It's so fun. From that night, I remember you sharing your story about how you ended up your journey to Hollywood, and it was so amazing. It was It was just really really great just to hear you know how it happened, because a lot of times, you know, people don't know how it happened. I think we just like turned up and right lay and it just worked out for us. But it's always a story and it's always a process.
People see the top, you know, ten percent of the iceberg, right. They see it when you hit the Bachelor Bachelorette and you're on national TV. You're like, oh, look he's here, same thing with you. It's like they didn't see this eighteen year old Taco Bell And did you work at Taco Bell?
I did? That was my first job?
Was it really?
Yes?
What did you do at Taco Bell? I?
Was? I worked the register? Yeah? I worked the register and I moved up. I was like there for maybe like almost three months, and I think I remember moving up pretty quickly.
You know, I bet you did. I'm just guessing the line of customers. When Cynthia Bailey was behind the register, they were.
Happy, excited for me to ring them up.
Let's just say some manager was like, damn, they liked these tacos.
Why didn't you come back again?
It's your fifth burrito today, man. But it's true. People don't see that. People don't see you hustling at Taco Bell. People didn't see you at eighteen years old taking the leap that you did, leaving Alabama and going to New York to be a model. Yes, how scary was that?
It was very scary Chris. It was honestly super scary. And looking back on my life, I asked myself, like, what what was I thinking? What made me just jump on a plane for the first time in my life, moved to New York City from small town Alabama and just go for it, pursue my modeling career. And what's so amazing about that decision, that very fearless decision. Well, no, not fearless. That fearful decision was that that one choice in my life totally changed the whole course of my
complete life. Like I honestly don't think had I not got on the plane to pursue my modeling career in New York City, I would be sitting in front of the Great Chris today, Like honestly, like everything happened after that, it was no turning back. But you never It's like literally like going into the unknown. You're like, Okay, I have nothing to lose, so let me just try. And you know, I've it's changed my whole life.
But you're eighteen years old and then you get signed by I think Wilhelmina, right, and then the next thing you know, you're off to Milan in Paris and you're an international supermodel and you're not even twenty years old yet. Oh no, do you think do you think you could do that now?
You know?
And look, I know women probably do, but it's got to be a different world. Like was there enough innocence or ability to do it back then that maybe you just couldn't do it in this modern day?
You know what? Back then that was kind of the only way it really happened for most of us was to just get on the plane and just go to where wherever they sent us to. I mean back then we hadn't seen movies like Taken. Yeah, like you're headed to Paris and you end up in Tilets.
Thank god Liam Mason is still around with a particular set of skills that could still save Cynthia Bailey.
But and I don't even think I even had a cell phone.
No, I'm sure you didn't back then eighty seven. No, there were no cell phones.
Exactly.
We had the big suitcases, right, you had the big suitcase, they had a phone on it.
And I couldn't afford one back then because that was at the beginning, like this was all the whole struggling, modeling part of my life.
So I mean it was like, I'm I'm thinking of your life. Give me a timeframe from you're working the cash register at Taco Bell to walking the runways of Paris. Is that like a year a year and a half difference?
I want to say maybe about two years.
Two years from Taco Bell in Alabama to never being on an airplane. Now you're walking the runways of Paris. Yes, it must have felt like you were shot out of a cannon.
It really did in a lot of ways. But you know, I was like shell shocked, if anything, because the whole time it was happening, I just kind of couldn't believe it was happening. It was like, Okay, I'm in New York City. I have to figure out New York City. Because that was a whole culture shock for me. I had never seen anything coming from my hometown. I was
like just blown away by New York. And then probably about six months after being in New York, I got a call from my agency saying, oh, you have an agency in Paris. Now they want you to come. I was like Okay, great, well, let me talk to my mom about it. And they were like, no, you're leaving in the morning. And I was like, wait, I just got to New York. I just figured out how to work, how to you know, rather the sub way, Like I
cannot go to another country right now. But they made it seem like it was just so normal at that time. You know, I had, you know, a couple of girlfriends I had met in the model's apartment and they were always coming from Germany or Australia. Was just like they were always on the go. So I was like, okay, so this is if they can do it, I guess I can do it. They're not freaking out about it.
I bought my mom for allowing me to first of all, moved to New York at like nineteen years old, and then allowing me to go to Paris, because now that I am a mother, as Mother's Day is approaching, yes, and I have a twenty three year old I cannot imagine no like just letting Noel go to a different country and live by ourselves.
Well that's what maybe that's why it's it's so triggering for me. I have a nineteen year old daughter, she's in freshman in college. And while she is a brilliant, beautiful, strong woman, you know, I'm excited for her some day to maybe learn overseas, and you know, do do a semester overseas. But that's different than you were a professional woman living alone and working in a very sexualized business and it's a lot. So it's very different than hey,
I'm gonna study abroad too. I'm a supermodel in Milan, right and.
I'm hanging out going to parties. And I didn't really party that much in Alabama, but I'm like, okay. It was just everything was just a whole new level, like just eating different foods and like learning French, you know, just learning how to understand French, making friends because you know what people don't realize is, you know, modeling, especially the way we did it back then. It was very lonely. Like all we did was travel to all these different
places alone. So I read books all the time. I was never in first class back then, so I couldn't watch movies or anything. I was always in coach, like the worst seat ever, so I would just have like my little walkman, I remember walk. Oh yeah, of course, my books and you know I would always bring food with me, like you just had to like find for
yourself and just be you know, prepared for whatever. But yeah, I mean I kind of went into the whole thing honestly, like I cannot feel like this, I cannot get in trouble. My mom was like, don't get on drugs, don't do anything crazy, because if you do, you're coming back home. So I was like a good girl model. I was like, I follow the rooms. I showed up to everything twenty minutes early.
All my castings, they must have been like, who is this girl? Who's how is she already here on time? And speaking of by the way, with Mother's Day approaching, and I know you're an amazing mother, let's let's just continue to give your mom a shout out because clearly she raised an amazing woman that was able to do this.
Thank you, Thank you so much. Yeah, shout out to my mom. Thank you for allowing me to follow my dreams, to just go for it and just walk into the known, not really understanding even what I was doing. I appreciate you. I appreciate you so much for just trusting me to to just take that leap of faith.
Well, you mentioned your daughter, and now you know you are the mom. Obviously she's a little older and not taking those huge steps you did at eighteen. But were you able to impart that same wisdom and that same strength into your daughter?
Yeah, well to some degree. I mean honestly, I mean I don't even want to know all to go to Costco bar something time, like even when she goes to the gas station, because you know, it all goes down at these gas stations. Yeah, there's a lot craziness. I'm like, text me, would you, you know, get your gas and make sure I know that you actually are okay? And to be completely transparent, I should track her on her on her car to make sure I know where she is.
And that's just not it's just for peace of mind. It's like, I'm not I'm really super concerned with where she's going or who she's going with per se. But it's just like just so I can sleep at night to know if she's out when she gets home, you know, the tracker says that Noel's home.
Hey, you know, if.
Anything happens, I have some idea where she is. You have to realize although I'm still you know, by coastal, I spent a lot of time in Atlanta now and she's in LA all the time. So you know, it's peace of mind, piece of.
You're preaching at the choir. Both my kids are on Life three sixty. I still track them, and I tell them as long as I'm paying the bills, as long as I'm paying for your phone. And look, I don't really care where they are on the college campus. I don't really care what they're up to. They're good kids and they're smart kids. I'm like you, it's safety. I want to know that everybody's okay.
You just want to know that they are okay, because you know, anything can happen at any time, especially with drive. And I think I know learning how to drive was the worst day of my life. The day can roll out of the driveway and went to where.
She was going back right into the trash cans, like.
I will never have peace again. This girl, this child knows how to drive now. So now it's like I don't even know. But anyway, yeah, yeah, so I'm not the kind of mom. I can't say that I would let her go do what my mom actually somehow let me.
I know, I think of that, But that world is different. I mean I used to you know, not being the old guy that's get off my lawn. But you know, I used to leave my house in the morning and just wouldn't come back until late at night. And that's when I was five, six seven years old. And everyone in the neighborhood knewest though back then, right, so.
The house back then, they were like get out of this house, like now go outside and play like we did. We were just I would go and you know, would gather at my cousins and we would just like walk the streets of my town like like you know, like we would actually be on like there was a train behind that was in my town, so we would like walk the rail. I wonder we didn't. We would like the train would be coming, would be like, let's just like wait until it gets really close and jump off
the tracks like who does that? Like we were like country kids. We did all of that stuff. So I'm very I said all that to say that I'm very lucky to be a lot, to be honest, because we did all kinds of stuff that like.
You know, no I never experienced, no I look back, and that's why it's like you don't tell your kids the whole truth and nothing about the truth, because we're not going to tell our kids everything we did. Just by the way, I don't want to hear everything my kids are doing, because it is it's a miracle any of us are alive. Speaking of Okay, how are you doing? Are you okay? Are you feeling good? Is life good for you right now?
Wow? Thank you for asking. That's such a nice thing to ask. Am I okay, I'm okay. I am walking into the season of me. This is my season. I'm all the energy that I usually pour pour everywhere else into Cynthia Bailey. And one of the things that I'm really proud of is the fact that I actually have started working out and I love it and I've been consistent.
I started in January. I do it three days a week, seven thirty in the morning for forty five minutes and mentally, spiritually, emotionally, it had just it has completely made me better in so many ways, stronger.
I was going to ask you about this because you've been posting a little bit on social media these workouts. First of all, these workouts are no joke.
Yes they're not.
And you can look at the guns the start.
I mean I was like nothing. I was like the worst person to even think about walking into a gym. I could. I was so weak, I couldn't do anything. And now I actually have almost mastered doing a proper push up, which is no easy feat. Trust me.
Well, if you don't mind, I know you celebrated your fifty sixth birthday back in February, so you're fifty six years old, and damn you look good and I loved your posts. So you I went back and looked at your birthday post and it was you and a bunch of kind of screw I might screw up the fashion phrase. There were onesies?
What were they were? Catsuits?
Cat suits? Sorry, I'm an idiot. Yeah, you can tell who the fashion expert is and who is it. But anyway, the long story short is you look spectacular in all of them. They were all these very bright colored cat suits. And that's how you celebrated fifty six by showing it off. And I love that.
I did you know what I'm like going back to being being in the season of me, I always say, now, I just want to live my life in color, like I'm fifty six years old. The rest is like this, I have to enjoyed this now, like I don't want to just work all the time. Now, I really want to truly live my life in color. So I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna buy all these different catsuits and different colors and just show like color, color, color,
because I really wanted to. I feel like every I feel like almost every ten years I reached.
Bent myself a little as by the way, I know, you know what, but.
It's almost like the audacity at fifty six years old to literally like start all over again.
Yeah, my new career.
I've transitioned from reality TV to an actress now, which is we all know is not easy to do so.
But you're doing it very well.
Thank you so much, Thank you so much for that. It's my hard work is definitely panof that is committed to becoming an actress, a well respected actress, and I am actually booking things quite consistently, and it's I'm really enjoying the ride. I think one of the things from coming one of the things I love that, you know, as someone who came from reality TV, is so much fun to play anyone other than yourself, Like I don't want to, I don't want to play in the eventage.
I've been playing me for fifty six years. Let's try something new.
Over myself, someone else, anything.
For those that don't know, uh, Cynthia recently divorced. She's been divorced twice, so that is what we're talking about with this new life. And as someone who went through a divorce late in life as well, I also made that choice and I appreciate. I called it the summer of Yes. As soon as I got divorced. I just had a summer of yes. If people called before they finished the sentence, yes, I'm in, I'll meet you there. I went to the Hamptons with people I didn't even know,
just met some people in New York and went. I did some just awesome adventures and travel and dated people I wouldn't normally date, just to just to shake the snow globe up a little bit.
There you go. I love that shake the snow globe. Well, that's what I'm doing. I am definitely shaking the snow glow of Chris. And it feels really good. You know. I feel like you know, when you live your life, you don't know you know what God has for you, and you just have faith that He's just going to move your steps. But I just I think my one fear is honestly is missing my purpose, are my mark.
That's why I'm not afraid to transition and jump into other things because I just feel really pulled and let to you know, make those moves when I decide to make them, because I don't want to look back and be like man, when I had that feeling in my gut to you know, leave Reality TV and start my acting career although it was later in life, you know what, maybe I could have been successful. Like I don't want to question those things at this point in my life.
You don't want to lay on your deathbed and say.
What if I don't want anyone if know what? If I want? I just want to really feel like I walked in my purpose, truthfully walked in my purpose, lived for the things that I wanted to do, and make smart, happy decisions about my life, which is it is my life, and just be true to me, like whatever it is, even if people don't understand it, like, just be true to me, because this is how this whole journey started.
Had I not been true to myself and went with what I felt and believed, I never would have went to New York in the first place. It was easier to stay. It's always easier to stay and not take that leap of faith.
I totally agree, easy.
To to just you know, I don't want to say not go for it to be mediocre. Just like I just knew I was pulled to try. I'm just trying trying to find my peace, trying to find my happy, trying to find my person, you know, trying to be a good mom, trying to you know, excel and continue to grow as an actress, you know, all of those things. That's it. Nothing beats a failure, but to try.
And you just said trying to find your person. Does that mean you Does that mean you're back on the market? Are you dating?
Absolutely?
Cynthia Bailey is out there, gentlemen. This should spark everybody's interest. Her DM should be blowing up right about now. Single and ready to mingle. Cynthia Bailey, single and ready to mingle.
And look here's the thing, you know, I think one of the other things at fifty six, you know, me being a woman of a certain age, Yes, of course, I'm like, hey, I know, it hasn't been that long since I got divorced. But at the same time, I'm not going to not I'm not going to not.
Waste time. You're not going to waste time.
If they if I meet them now, Like I'm not going to say I should wait like two years before I start, because you know, it's not like I need too much grass to grow under my feet. I am fifty six. It's not like I'm trying to have my first hot gook my first hot girl summer at sixty, like like sixty, I need my man to be I need a man by then, Like I'm not trying to be like, hey, I'm back outside. I'm sixteen sixty. So like even like for my birthday turning fifty six, it
was a little different than fifty five. Fifty five still seemed like I was still closer.
To fifty, right, you can still you still got one foot in the other circle.
Exactly exactly now I could just you know, I don't even have to post my birthdays anymore at this point because I've always like owned my age and been super transparent about it. But now I'm kind of.
Like I'm by now, have you been on a date since the divorce date?
I have been on a date I have not been on many dates. I am slowly meeting people because it's not as easy to meet people as one would think. No, really not.
Bizarrely, with all this technology, it actually feels harder.
It is in a way I don't I don't know, it's it's it's just tricky. You know. Why's tricky. This is why it's hard, because the game has changed. People don't pick up the phone and call anymore. It's like, you know, I got to find them in my dms, which you has time to really take those that off r Like I'm like, oh, wait a minute, there's a
cute guy here. Then I'm like, I'm Riah, which you know, it's like, you know, everyone thirty five years old likes my pictures and I'm like, I'm not looking for you.
Yeah, I don't need a pool boy, I need a date.
Stop liking my pictures. And then you know, anyone like for me as low as I would go. I want to say the lowest. The youngest I would go is thirty seven, thirty eight, and I really don't want to go that young, but they they come hard for me.
They'd have to be a perfect mature.
The men, the old men that are my age. They're like, no, no, no, no, no, we want younger. So they don't. That's just not I rarely get a response from them. So and the oldest I would go, I would go. I mean I would go as old as whatever, as long as they you know, looked good and kept you know, took care of themselves. Like I'm fifty six, but I'm not an old fifty six.
I'm a young No matter who it is and what age, they got to keep up with you. You are a lot of energy, you are a lot of life force. You better keep up.
That's right. They have to keep up. So we'll see. But I'm excited. I don't know if marriage is in the cards again, to be honest, Chris, but.
Yeah, I feel that I get it.
I am. I mean, if it is great, if it's not, it's it's fine. It's definitely not a breaker for me.
That's how I felt. I mean, look, I'm engaged and we're going to get married. But honestly, as we started dating and I started dating again, it was not a priority my life. I have two beautiful kids. I know that I'm not going to have any more, so that's not the priority. And so the dynamic changes. Right when you're young, You're like, oh, I want to meet someone,
I'm gonna get married, I want to have babies. Well, once you've done that, I just want to meet someone who's a value add and a beautiful addition to my life. And then if marriage comes from that and we want to do that, great, that's wonderful and we both do.
And you know, for me, I just want love again. Like I'm a Pisces woman. I think like, no matter what I do in my life, no matter how much success I have in my life, no matter how happy I am in my life, it's fun to just have somebody, you know, to travel with a person plus one, like go to a wedding with you know what I'm saying.
You want a person, You want your person. Where's do we texting good night? Who are we texting good night at the end of the night? Who's our first Tello in the morning? You want that person?
Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely so I'm never going to give up. I'm never going to give up on love. Good. You know, love makes it's all about I mean, at the end of the day, that's it all kind of comes back to love. So you know, my person will be coming. I'm just gonna go ahead and manifest that they're coming.
So you have way too much love in you and way too much love to give. There's there's no way you're not going to find that in your life. Well, I'm a big believer. If you put it out there, it comes back. The energy you put out and the love you put out. Again, having been in the room with you, there's no way that doesn't come back.
Well, thank you, thank you.
You talked about life after Housewives. Obviously everyone kind of got to know and love you from Real Housewives of Atlanta. You made a huge, bold call to step away. Possibly, that's a question I have because there was a little dinner where you were in Beverly Hills. I believe, a little dinner with a little dinner with Camille Grammer and Denise Richards, who of course used to be on Real Housewives Beverly Hills.
Le's dinner party. Yes. Yes.
And on top of that, people have seen some trailers of Real Housewives of Atlanta and there's Cynthia.
Bailey guilty is charged again?
Yes, what gives? What gives? Cynthia?
Well, here's the thing. One I decided to walk away from Housewives. You know, there was still a lot of relationships in place, you know, not just with ladies, but with the network. You know, still you know, a big
family for me. And I knew that I no longer at that time wanted to be a housewife or official friend of the show at that time, So I don't know, like the longer, like you know, once I left and I started transitioning into the other things that I wanted to do, the other my other career, I just kind of like not really missed what Bravo Khan kind of made me get the bug again. I will say that I don't know, I just felt like, you know what, I still have great relationships with these ladies, like a lot.
I'm friends with a lot of housewives from all the different franchises, and I really enjoy supporting them. So for Atlanta, I do pop in a few times to support some ladies who have really great friendships with And I made some new friends in Beverly Hills. I knew, you know, like Garcela already and Kyle, but Sutton and I connected at Bravo Khan and we become big buddies, and she actually invited me to be our plus one to join her at Kyle's house for dinner with the rest of
the cast. And that was pretty cool because he probably can't tell you too much, but you can watch and see it was. It was the right dinner to be invited to.
So he was a juicy dinner.
Oh, it was a very juicy dinner for sure. Like probably, like I think we're gonna guess more, it will be a.
Two part It's a two episode dinner. Absolutely. So the Real Housewives of Atlanta return rumor is not true? Kind of true, possibly true, not true.
I'm not at this time in my life.
I'm not interested in being You'll just make some appearances.
Wipe on any franchise.
If you had one to join Atlanta or Beverly Hills, and I know you're an Atlanta girl, but would you do Beverly Hills or Atlanta? What would be your Which one would I pick? Now you have friends in both.
I know that's hard. Part of me wants to say Atlanta because Atlanta it's familiar and I have, you know, long term relationships with those ladies of well, long time relationships rather. But then the other little adventurous side of Cynthia's like jump over into Beverly Hills because you know, Beverly Hills ain't Atlanta, Honey, it's a very different, very different show.
You could be the firecracker to go in there and just like stir things up.
Oh I don't know, Chris, I'm getting that age. I don't want a lot of smoke. I just want to actually be the person that everyone comes to to tell me about what happened with someone else that like, you know, came for them. I've never been really good at being the smoke person or the villain.
You want to be the quiet person that's known for the incredible romance and the love story that we all aspire to have, and then let's let everybody else like stir it up.
Well, you know, I don't have to be quiet. I like being that person who's like the two villains, like, I like being the connection where I'm always trying to get them back together or trying to figure out what's happening. You know. I love being the voice of reason and the peacemaker to some degree. But you know, every now and then I'll throw a sparkler on the fire to kind of keep things going.
But I never want to just jump in the fire but I like that the godmothers of the franchisees got together, Camille Grammer, Denise Richards, you got together. I mean to be a fly on the wall at that dinner.
Oh no, it was just wanting to tell you you are not ready. You're not ready for that dinner. One of the things that I love about being in the Housewife family, being in the Proble family is you know, you never know, like you know, some of us go away for years then come back. So I've taken a break and come back come back. It's a housewife or friend like they do a really really great job of just keeping this thing going for as long as you want to keep it incredible, right, you know what I'm saying.
And that feels really good because you know, once you become known for being a housewife, you just don't become unknown for it. It's like almost once a housewife, always a housewife.
Well, I was going to ask you that it's funny. I was going to ask if that bothers you or if it's something that you're proud of. It's kind of like when people will still obviously you just recognize me from the Bachelor, and some honestly still think I'm hosting The Bachelor, and it never bothers me. It's what I did for twenty years. It's what brought me into your home and into your life. Does it bother you as you are trying to break away and become a serious actor.
Does it bother you that people still kind of talk to you about Housewives and kind of want to and are excited about maybe the possibility that you were coming back now?
Not at all. It doesn't bother me because, like, you know, true to what you just said, it was how I got here in a lot of ways, Like it really like I had a very successful modeling career for years, but it was only when I, you know, became a reality star where I was known across the world, Like it was just a different type of celebrity. And I've been able. I felt like I was true to who I was on Housewives, So you know, that same person is just transitioning into this other career. But I'm very
proud of how I handled myself on Housewives. I only have maybe one situation where I was like, maybe I should not have kick Porsche. You know, Yeah that was I'm just gonna blame it on the alcohol, on the boat and no food because I was definitely that was definitely very out of character for me, and it was the one my one regret, it would be that regret. But I immediately, you know, apologized, and you know we were able to move on. So thank you.
If you can go through your Housewives reality TV career and have one little oopsie, one regret years, that is a miracle. I mean that is you are you are the point one percent?
Yes, yes, because it's very you know, those shows are like so entertaining for you guys to watch, but it's a lot, it's very stressful, it's very.
The whole show is about drama, right, That's that's what the whole idea is about.
All about drama. Definitely from a you know based show. So but I when I look back, like you said, everybody gets one oopsie, like okay, you know, can I make one, you know, one mistake. But for the most part, I felt like I love the way I handle myself because I was just being myself. I didn't know how to do reality TV. Until I wanted reality TV. I didn't know how it worked. So I just did the best that I could, the best way that I knew how to do it, and you know it's been a
blessing and a curse. Like sometimes you know, some people may not book me for jobs because they may just always look at me auality Star, But some people who actually are fans of mine will give me an opportunity at least opportunity to at least audition, and then you know, then I have to go in and like overwork and over impress them. And I feel like that's where I'm at in my career right now. I feel like I have to overprove myself because it's really important to me.
I don't want anyone to give me anything. I want to earn everything that I get, and more importantly, I want the respect of the actors that I work with. I want the respect of the director and the producer.
But you realize that's always what has made you great, and that's why you've always been successful, honestly, from Taco Bell to modeling to Real Housewives to this. Because I don't know if it's people that come from the South, we have this kind of chip on our shoulder of always just wanting to prove that we belong and work our butts off and show up and work out and just do your job, and it's such a rare talent.
It's a rare thing, like when you're eighteen year said, I showed up to every modeling gig early, and I'm sure you're doing the same. You're still doing it now, over preparing, over studying, and that is such a novelty these days that it's so beautiful to see because it's rare.
It's like, honestly, I feel like my secret weapon, to be honest, I think at some point, you know, I think a lot of my modeling success was the thing that I felt like I looked, you know, good and everything. But I feel like at some point the people that were making the decisions just wanted to book who they liked, who was easy to work with, who was professional, who was going to get the job done, who was a
team player. And I've always just had a great work ethic and just you know, respect for you know, my job and just being professional and it goes a long way. Like some people like sometimes the nice guys don't the good guys don't always win. But I do think that's changing in this industry. I think people.
Appreciate when you and I were together at the Seagrams and I see the cans behind you by the way, nice plug, Yeah show it, there you go. But one of the things that you and I talked about because I asked your advice because your Seagram's drink had been out and it's been hugely successful. And I said, oh, you know, give me some advice on this, and you said, don't just put your name on something. You got to
own it. You got to work it, grind. You come to these meetings, you talk to the salespeople, you go to the stores, you do everything. If you are putting your name on it, show up and do the work. And that really I took that to heart. And yeah, so we did as well. But that you've always had that mentality. I saw it back then, and that's why you are such a great success.
It's the only way for me. It's the only way when I'm in. I'm one hundred percent in and I'm one hundred percent committed, and I want to be involved in all of it because I want it to be successful. I want anything that I'm doing to be successful, anything that I'm putting time into, I want it to be successful. I want us to be successful. I want everyone to be successful.
Right, I want to win.
I want to continue to win because I wake up most days and I can't even believe this is my life. Like I cannot even believe that this is my life although I dreamed it. I dreamed of this life. I pray for this life. But I still get to do this and keep going and going to different fields six years old, Like that's that's just God, and it's just amazing.
If you can wake up feeling blessed every day. You're doing all right in this game. You're doing all right in this game. Before I let you go, because we've talked, we've dabbled a little bit about what you're doing now, and I know you are working hard to become an actress and you are getting some steam and you're picking ups. Are are you working on anything currently? Is anything we can see you in soon?
I am. I actually have two movies on BT right now. One is called Under His Influence and the other one is called Blossom. And I'm actually headed to La next and the next two weeks to shoot another movie. Actually, my daughter Noel was in this movie with me, which no way, It's gonna be so much fun to work with her. So I have that going on and The other thing before I jumped off Chris is I wanted to share a little bit more about my wellness journey.
I just do.
Super committed to becoming a better me mentally, physically, emotionally, in every single way. So I am in the process of putting together a women's health and wellness retreat that I want to to do once a year, get women together, get all these different experts, like just help us, you know, be great and you know, tell us what we need to, you know, continue to to be the incredible moms and
bosses that we are. Because the one thing about women I find at will for myself, I'll speak for myself, is that I don't always take the time for me like I need to. I just keep going until I get sick and then that's when I shut down. But otherwise, like I used to look at everything as a treat, like a massage. It was like I'm going to treat myself. But I don't have that mentality anymore. I don't look as at a massage as a treat. I look at
it as this is like necessary maintenance. It's like getting your right, like you got to keep you.
Know, it's called preventative medicine, your fitness, your diet, your health, your mental health. It's all preventative medicine. So we don't have to take medicine.
Yeah, but it's easier said than done because oh so you get busy and then you know you don't take care of yourself as much as you should. So I have committed to that, and with committing to taking care of Cynthia, I want to inspire and motivate other women to do the same thing. You know what I'm saying, because it is important because you know, help is really well, like none of iturs if you're sick in the hospital.
The older you get, you realize the adage is true. If you have your health, you have everything.
Yes, yes, And I also want to do I also want to give a shout out.
By the way, Lauren Zima is like she's already signing up for this, like you you have her. I know there's at least one woman that's going to be there, Elsie, your biggest fan is already. Yeah. And if somehow I can slip into this, I'm gonna I may join it.
Absolutely because that's the beauty of it too. Like we'll like probably go to like an island somewhere and then you can like do the and then you can stay a couple extra days with your man you know, or your woman or whatever.
Perfect.
So it's perfect. But I have to before I jump off, I have to shout out to all the moms out there. You know, Mother's Day is coming up and I have very delicious drink. We have a delicious recipe from seagrums Escapes, which you can go to secrems escapes dot com to check it out. It is called the Mother's Day Tropical Sangria. And who is of a beautiful sangria? Okay? The only difference is we're going to be adding are just making
me happy, which is one of my top flavors. You start with that, and then you throw in your rum and your white wine and any fruits of your choice. I personally like strawberries and grapes and watermelon and oranges, so you know, you could just have fun with it. It literally takes five minutes to make this drink. It is the Mother's Day Tropical Sangria from Seagrum's Escapes. That's what I'll be drinking for Mother's Day, So I hope you guys will join me.
I know it's not my day, but I'm going to be drinking it as well. To you or what, yeah, you did this. I'm telling you, guys, this is why she's so damn good. I mean, she could sell ice to Eskimos and they're buying it.
That I always say that, I can't believe you just said that.
Cynthia. You are such a love. You are such a light in this world. And when I started doing this podcast, I said, you got to get Cynthia Bailey. I hope she'll come on because you were just one of those amazing people that came through my life. Because again because we're blessed in what we do, and we get to meet amazing people. And to have sat there and had done business with you and then had dinner with you and spent some time and really got to know you, and to have watched you flourish.
But there was a connection. And I'm so congratulations to you. I'm so excited for you. You know, I root for you, and I pray for you, and I know that the best is yet to come for you. So keep on going and I'm going to keep on going and I'll meet you at the top.
Always, let's go we will be there together and all I'll always take the prayers and back at you. Cynthia, thank you so much for joining us. I truly appreciate it, and I hope to run into you very soon. My friend.
Well, we're going to make that happen. Okay, all right, take care.
How amazing is that woman? And I know you're listening to a podcast, but sometimes you don't need to see to understand someone's energy, someone's light. And if you only knew her from Real Housewives of Atlanta, I'm not going to say you're missing out, but man, that is barely half the story of what an incredible woman she is. And I'm glad that I had the ability and the platform to hopefully expose her to even more people that didn't know her, because she is just an absolutely incredible woman.
Cynthia Bailey. My thanks to her, and my thanks to you for listening, and I'll talk to you next time. We have a lot more to talk about. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most Dramatic pod ever, and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.