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mimi LHHATL

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When we were introduced to Mimi Faust in Season 1 of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta back in 2012, her life was nothing but drama. She had a child with producer Stevie J, who to her shock, was having a relationship on the side with his artist, Joseline Hernandez. For a whole season, she dealt with a lot of embarrassment and heartache, but the embarrassment continued even when her relationship with Stevie ended. New relationships brought even more drama, including a sex tape she staged, and scrutiny from friends, while old issues brought about physical confrontations and a lot of teeth-clenching anger from Mimi.

But these days, she’s in a much better place. She’s been publicly dating girlfriend Ty Young since 2017, and positively co-parenting her daughter, Eva, with Stevie. And while that’s brought her a lot of peace, it has also messed with her money.

In an interview with actress Stacii Jae Johnson on Stacii’s YouTube series Love Rants, the 48-year-old reality star said Love and Hip Hop Atlanta producers actually required her to take a pay cut because she didn’t have enough chaos in her life for them to capture in Season 9.

“I think the show has kind of switched gears a little bit. A lot actually, and I’ve elevated and grown from the BS I was in. And I’m happy and nobody wants to see the happy on Love And Hip Hop. They just don’t,” she said. Love And Hip Hop is not a happy arena. They want to see wigs flying and drinks thrown and somebody punching somebody in the face. That’s what they want to see. And unfortunately, I choose not to participate in that and I’ve had to take a major pay cut because of it. The reason was, I didn’t have enough ‘drama’ in my life. $150,000 I had to take because of it. $150,000 pay cut.”

The star said producers encouraged her to find some drama in order to maintain her full salary, but she said she and Ty were against bringing problems into their relationship, so she went ahead and agreed to the pay cut.

“On my last interview, because you know, every season, we have to go back and talk to the producers and they’re like, ‘So what’s going on in your life? X, Y, and Z.’ And I think the second question I was asked was, was Ty cheating on me. [It] was the second question the producers asked in my meeting. I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ Am I supposed to be f–ked up, in a bad place, being cheated on my whole life? At what point am I allowed to grow and be happy and be okay and be good? Why do I have to consistently be cheated on every relationship that I’m in? But that’s what they want. And they were like, you either find some drama, find some drama or…you better go find some drama. I wasn’t willing to do that. I wasn’t willing to put my relationship in that place because if you bring BS to the table, you brought BS to your table. My girlfriend’s not with it. She’s not with, ‘oh let’s play and act like…,’ she’s not that girl. So that wasn’t an option for me, to act like she’s cheating on me or I’m cheating on her, for TV. We not doing that, so I took a pay cut.”

And while she continues to be a cast member on the show and collect whatever check she’s getting these days, Mimi admitted she may not be on LHHATL much longer. She can’t relate to the things her cast members are fighting about now, and honestly doesn’t want to, hence her always appearing either really confused or unbothered (with a drink or food in hand) when melee breaks out.

“Honestly, I don’t even feel like I belong on the show anymore,” she said. “I feel like a total outcast and an alien because I don’t even know what’s going on. What are we fighting about? That’s why I just sit there because I’m like, what? When I was going through my s–t, I was really going through some s–t for real. Really real. It was a f–ked up situation. Today they’re fighting over who’s the queen of Atlanta. What? I don’t understand, so I’m not going to get involved. I just don’t get it.”

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