Cynthia Bailey

Some Lesser known Facts About Cynthia Bailey

• Cynthia Bailey grew up in Tuscumbia, Alabama, the birthplace of Helen Keller. Her parents were from humble financial backgrounds, with her father working as an automobile factory worker and her mother in a sewing factory.

  

• She was the first African American to win the homecoming queen title at her school. After that, she participated in a beauty pageant, where an employee of a talent management company, Wilhelmina International Inc., noticed her.

• She joined as a freshman at the University of Alabama in Huntsville but dropped out to pursue a modelling career.

• She relocated to New York for her career and signed a 5-year contract with Wilhelmina International.

  

• She modelled for several prominent fashion brands and worked as a runway model in Paris and Milan.

  

• Some of her roles in films include Roxanne in Without You I’m Nothing (1990), Vanessa in The Stepmother (2022), and Victoria Van Der Poole in The Lost Holiday (2024).

  

• In 2010, she became one of the cast members of the television reality show The Real Housewives of Atlanta (RHOA), Season 2. She continued with the show until Season 13 (2020), returning as a guest in the fifteenth season and a friend in the sixteenth season.

• In 2011, she opened a modelling agency, Bailey Agency School of Fashion, in Atlanta.

• In 2013, she co-authored a book, Carry-On Baggage: Our Nonstop Flight, with her ex-husband Peter Thomas.

• In 2013, she unveiled a Cynthia Bailey doll designed by doll designer Stacey McBride-Irby as part of the Pretty Girls Collector Doll project by The One World Doll Project, Inc.

  

• She launched her brand of eyewear, Cynthia Bailey Eyewear, by the end of 2015. The business was relaunched in 2023 after it was stopped in 2020.

• In 2016, she introduced a bags and luggage line, CB Vior, in her accessories business. She also collaborated with luxury leather bags brand Nila Bags.

• In 2018, she was diagnosed with a lipoma (a benign tumour formed due to fat tissue) on her left shoulder, which was surgically removed.

• Her roles in television series include Tasha Rae in Star (2019) on the Fox network, N’Dasia in Games People Play (2021) on BET, and Gloria in BMF (2024) on Starz.

• During her pregnancy in 1999, she was diagnosed with a uterine fibroid. She partnered with USA Fibroid Centers to educate women about uterine fibroids and its various treatment options.

• In October 2024, Cynthia and television personality Crystal Kung Minkoff started a podcast, Humble Brag with Crystal and Cynthia, available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

  

• She likes to cook and is a food-lover.