Mike Hill, fiancée of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey, has opened up about his relationship with the reality TV star and his memoir, Open Mike, which hits shelves soon.
Hill and Bailey are set to tie the knot next fall, but in the meantime, the couple are filming Season 12 of RHOA. Hill is also making time to address all those pesky social media rumors about himself and Bailey’s daughter, Noelle Robinson.
The 19-year-old has moved in with her mom’s fiancé on the west coast while she pursues her acting career.
While recently appearing on the It’s Bravo Betch podcast, Mike revealed: “Noelle’s living with me right now,” he said, adding that he is friends with her father, actor Leon Robinson. “She’s out here in L.A., she’s pursuing her goals of acting. She’s a superstar… She’s an influencer, so she’s doing her thing for YouTube and her YouTube channel. That’s my daughter. I have three daughters: Two biological daughters and my bonus daughter in Noelle.”
Hill spoke further about his relationship with Noelle’s dad in the interview with MadameNoire and this criticism he has received online for housing the teenager.
MadameNoire: You’ve actually known Leon Robinson longer than you’ve actually known Cynthia, which is crazy! So when you agreed to do The Steve Harvey Show and you guys hit it off and you were interested in pursuing her, did you and Leon have a conversation about that or was it not necessary?
Mike Hill: I didn’t break bro code! I ain’t break no man law because I know Leon, but we ain’t boys. It wasn’t like we were hanging out all the time. I met him, talked to him, and there was a show idea I had because I do some producing on the side for my production company. I had a show I wanted him to actually be a part of. We actually kept in touch that way. But when it came to pursuing Cynthia, I ain’t even really think about Leon as far as, I knew they had a past because they have a daughter together, but it wasn’t like I was breaking bro code. He’s given us his biggest blessing. He’s always been supportive of us. We just had dinner the other night, all of us together because their daughter Noelle just turned 20, so we got a nice little blended family. Everything’s great. Everything’s copacetic.
Speaking of Noelle, you shared that she lives with you in LA while she pursues her career. People had thoughts about that and claimed it was inappropriate. What do you say to that?
That was taken completely out of context. Noelle is like my daughter. Anything that any of my two daughters have, Noelle can have. That’s how I look at it. My youngest daughter actually lives in LA too, so it’s not like it’s just the two of us in the house together. My youngest daughter actually goes to UCLA and is always there. Cynthia’s always there! Noelle came out there because she wanted to get into acting and she’s pursuing her influencer role. She’s trying to do her thing and find herself in LA. So instead of her going to spend $3,000 or $4,000 for a place and not having any friends who she can room with, I got a four bedroom brand new house out there. I’ve got plenty of space. She’s free to come stay there and like I said, she’s like a daughter to me. So the people who tried to make it all weird and all that stuff, I tried to ignore it or whatever. It’s embarrassing and sad because it’s us saying that about each other, and that kind of pissed me off to be quite honest with you. I’m looking at it like that’s my blood. What are you saying about me? What are you saying about her? Are you questioning my character? My daughters come live with me so what’s the big deal? I look at Noelle as my daughter so if she comes to live with me while she’s doing that or whatever and Cynthia is in and out, I’m not thinking or having any second thoughts about that whatsoever.
I don’t necessarily know if I would say people were attacking your character. I think women, specifically those who are mothers, are just cautious about leaving their children with men. I think it was more of a question of why Cynthia would be okay with that, not an attack on you.
Well Noelle is 20. It’s not like Noelle is 14 and can’t take care of herself. Noelle is a grown woman. Noelle comes in and out and I rarely even see her to be honest. She’s in her room, I’m in my room and I’m hardly at home. Basically she has the house to herself because I travel so much. I’m always working. I’ve got three or four jobs that I’m working so I’m in and out. I see her maybe 15 minutes of the day that we’re together or whatever, but she knows I’m always there for her. If there’s anything I need she is there for me as well, taking care of some of the things in the house. So I didn’t see anything wrong with it at all. It was just something that was needed. It’s almost like if I was Cynthia’s brother and Noelle came to live with Cynthia’s brother, why would anybody complain about that? I’m Cynthia’s fiancé. I’m going to be in her life. We’re going to be married. Even if I was just a good friend of Cynthia’s, I would still instill that welcome to anyone who’s in her family because I look at her as family already. People that made a big deal about it, I understand it’s their opinion and they can think what they want to, but I know what it is, Noelle knows what it is, Cynthia knows what it is and at the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters.
Does Leon feel any kind of way about it?
Leon has no problem with it. It’s just unfortunate that sometimes you see little blurbs and people jumping in your DMS and people jumping in your social media and saying stuff. You try to avoid all the negativity. You see it and you hear it. But at the same time it’s like, it’s just disheartening sometimes that we can’t look at Black people, I’m just speaking real right now, that we can’t look at it and say we’re just here to help one another and not make it anything nefarious or weird or crazy or scandalous. The thing about it is, I saw people on blogs and social media talking about it, bringing it up, and not for one second did I think I made a mistake by welcoming her into my home. I would definitely do it again. My kids and Noelle have a great relationship. They’re always together and always talking or whatever. Like I said, my youngest daughter is at UCLA and she’s basically Noelle’s sister. They hang out all the time. Noelle has been a huge help to me, picking up my daughter whenever she needs a ride or whatever or taking care of some business. I just think people made a big deal out of it and I just hope that we can get past that.
