Source: LaJoy Cox of LaJoy Photography; The First Look Photography / lifetime
It’s been painful to watch the ordeal Paige Banks has had to endure being married to Atlanta “entrepreneur” Chris Williams.
From the onset, it was clear, not only was Chris not fully committed to this process, his actions from the wedding day forward seem to suggest that he takes pleasure in manipulating Paige as he plays his sick little game.
Chris is definitely the abuser in the situation. Still, for the viewers at home, watching Paige return to him over and over again has been frustrating. And people haven’t been shy about sharing that viewpoint as well.
Well, Paige has seen your comments. And during a recent interview with Danielle Canada, from our sister site, Bossip, Paige opened up about the trauma of being married to Chris and responds to the folks who think she’s weak-minded.
See what she had to say below.
Bossip: Why do you believe you and Chris were matched? What qualities of yours align?
Paige: I am honestly still trying to figure that out myself. Good and bad!
Bossip: Throughout this process we’ve seen you strongly lean on your faith, but after the baby news did you also lean on any family or friends for advice?
Paige: Yes, I leaned on my family and some close friends and they – like myself – were devastated and heartbroken about how everything was transpiring in our situation at such a short period of time. Majority of them wanted me to run in the other direction but were supportive of me and my decisions to stay.
Bossip: What’s the best advice Pastor Cal has given you during your experience with Chris?
Paige: I love Pastor Cal! I have always looked up to him and am very appreciative of the role he has played in my post-experiment experience. I think the best advice he had given me during that sit-down is to never downplay my commitment to the marriage or this process. I think a lot of people are so quick to judge me and call me weak-minded, desperate or even my favorite – “a doormat”, but no one takes the time to really sit on the fact that coming into this process I really respected the ideals and values of marriage and wanted something like that on my own. I knew that the process would not be easy but I did not expect so many challenges so early on during the process. Marriage is not easy and if I could do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I would have definitely made some different decisions. I knew my spirit was really uneasy on wedding day but I still wanted to give things a fair chance.
Bossip: Do you think Chris took the meeting with Pastor Cal seriously? We clearly saw him snickering on camera.
Paige: No. I think at that point he had already made his mind up and it wasn’t really any convincing him to stay in the marriage.
Bossip: Do you think Chris’s comment about “being scared about falling in love” with you was sincere?
Paige: At the time I did because he had said it to me once before off-camera with other people around, but saying it and meaning it are two different things.
Bossip: Social media users have been FAR from kind to Chris but you’re the only one who spent time with him behind the scenes, do you personally think he’s a narcissist like social media does?
Paige: The Chris that you see on camera is the same guy off camera. He’s very self-serving this entire time.
Bossip: What do you want viewers to learn about you? A lot of people thought you should have packed up and leave Chris on the honeymoon.
Paige: I think it is a lot easier to judge a book by its cover than to actually empathize with that person and their experience. This was actually a very traumatic experience for me and there were plenty of times when I emotionally checked out from the entire process. The pressure of it all had really taken a toll. I truly like to see the good in people and that’s why I give difficult things a fighting chance, but just like the ole saying goes, “When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.”
Bossip: We’ve seen your strong faith keep you calm throughout this entire ordeal and you’ve handled things with such class and grace, what do you think God wanted you to learn through this process?
Paige: Thank you so much for your kind words! I’ve seen a lot of commentary circulating around “God would not support this mess” or not to bring my religion in my struggle. The ironic part about all of this is I felt like God had given up on me because of all of the disparities that I had been facing throughout my process. I was journaling during my experience and in the beginning I was questioning God for bringing me into this experience and then I started to shift my prayers to become gratitude based and I just started to see an overall shift in my perspective of life. The biggest lesson I think he wanted me to learn throughout this process is to not rush Him and to let things happen on His time. This process confirmed the healing and transformative work that needs to be done in order to truly be ready for marriage.
You can read the rest of Paige’s interview over at Bossip.
