The Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 17 newcomer Pinky Cole is sharing some new insight into her relationship with her husband, Derrick Hayes. The Slutty Vegan founder is also married to a fellow restaurateur, who she admitted shares so many similarities with her.
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The mom of three spoke with The Daily Dish on March 30, where she revealed that she is “so happy” to be in a relationship with someone who is a “big dreamer like me.” “I want a billion-dollar brain, so does he. I’m a boss, so is he. OK, I want the best, so does he,” she explained.
“So, I get to see myself in him, and he sees himself in me. And I’m happy that we get to do life together,” the RHOA cast member noted. “Is it always easy? Absolutely not. ‘Cause sometimes I be ready to knock him out, OK? But I also realize that when you say ‘I do,’ you say it for better or worse. And I’m excited to be able to show people on Real Housewives what real marriage looks like. It’s not always gonna be pretty. It’s not always gonna be fun. But what it will be is it’ll be real. And they’ll see that, and be able to navigate through their own marriages just by seeing our story.”
Pinky Cole shares more details about her marriage to her husband
Pinky continued, sharing even more details about her marriage and partnership with Derrick, who is the founder and CEO of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks. “We have a beautiful home. We live in a country club. We live in a mansion. And I’m proud of that, right,” she admitted. “We’re not even 40 yet and we have three kids, a beautiful home, a beautiful family.”
“Both myself and my husband, we both have multi-million-dollar businesses. So we are our ancestors’ wildest dream,” she added. “And I’m glad to be a motivator and inspiration to entrepreneurs around the world.”
Pinky Cole reveals how she balances running her business with her marriage
Being the parents of three kids, having two successful businesses, and balancing her marriage is not easy for Pinky. But, she has a simple rule to help her with her busy life. “If I don’t love it, I’m not doing it. So I connect myself with the ecosystem of things I take enjoyment in. And it never feels like work,” she noted. “And that feels good to me. And my husband is in the same industry, so he don’t ever get bored with me talking about business ’cause he’s in the same business I’m in.”
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Pinky Cole opens up about how she met her husband, Derrick Hayes
Pinky and Derrick first met in 2020. She explained to The Daily Dish that their relationship started in the DMs. “You know, when I met my husband I met him because somebody broke the windows to his restaurant. And I slid in his DMs, OK, I’m not ashamed to say it,” she admitted. “I slid in his DMs and I said, ‘Do you need some help?’ Like, ‘How can I support you?’ You know, I’m a community activist. And I slid in his DM. And he said he didn’t need help.”
“But we ended up going to lunch and I fell in love with that man so much that I got pregnant three months after we met,” she explained.
Pinky Cole shares new details on her wedding to Derrick Hayes
The couple ended up tying the knot at the St. Regis in Atlanta in 2023. “My wedding was amazing,” she admitted. “We had 385 guests at our wedding. And we only invited 320, so I don’t know where the hell the rest of the people came from.”
According to Pinky, their nuptials was a “star studded” affair. “Montell Jordan married us. Tasha Cobbs, she sung at our wedding when I walked down the aisle. And she’s a Grammy award winning music artist,” she noted. “We had so many great people…a lot of great folks. A lot of renowned businessmen came to the wedding. It was fun. We had a great time. And I announced that I was pregnant at our wedding with our third child ’cause child, I’ve been pregnant for four years straight.”
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Learn more about Pinky’s financial struggles with her business and how she was able to bring it back to life.
— Reporting by Stephanie Gomulka
