Slutty Vegan Founder Pinky Cole is opening up about being married to another entrepreneur, Derrick Hayes, the founder and CEO of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, and the unspoken challenges it brings.
During an episode of the Earn Your Leisure podcast, Cole opened up about the challenge of being present in her marriage as Hayes’ success skyrocketed while hers was in trouble. “In the middle of losing it all, my husband, who has worked for the last 15 years to get here, finally gets his moment. So here I am as a wife, we’re newlyweds, I’m like ‘Hey, I’m here, I need your help, but he’s also getting his moment,” she said.
“So like he comes around me, I got the depressed energy on me, lets be honest…and he’s excited but now a part of him doesn’t want to be excited because if he’s too happy…cause in my mind he probably feels like if I’m too happy and I’m over here sulking in entrepreneurship trying to figure it out then it makes him look like a bad husband.”
The new “Housewives of Atlanta” star touches on how being married as entrepreneurs is not a joke. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Annual Business Survey, according to Yahoo! Finance, revealed that 297,778 businesses were owned and operated jointly by spouses, accounting for just over 10% of all U.S. for-profit businesses in 2021.
As the restaurant business owners admit to the challenges, especially with both brands being worth millions, Cole says one of the key elements of figuring it out is keeping their businesses “totally separate.” “Derrick makes millions in his business, I make millions in my business, but we keep our businesses totally separate. I don’t know what’s going on in his business, he dont know whats going on in mine, so when I met him, my business essentially….I had more visibility than he did,” she said.
“So oftentimes he was the supporting character in our empire, but then the roles reversed, and I became the supporting character in his. But that’s the beauty of marriage.”
Hayes seemingly supports Cole in all aspects of her life. As news broke that she was filing for bankruptcy and creditors were seeking to take over one of her houses, Cole was preparing to put more of her life into the mainstream, starring in the new season of the popular Bravo network show. Despite all the drama, the cheesesteak king settled in, calling himself a “Father 1st, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist” in his Instagram bio but adding his new title in support of his wife. “Welp… now I’m married to a Real Housewife of Atlanta. I ain’t winning another argument ever again. Pray for me. @pinkycole congratulations,” he wrote on Instagram.
The com
ments section showed some support for her sentiments, while it seems others don’t see the value in having a supportive life partner. “She’s better than me cuz the way I woulda said eff that business and let my husband take care of me lmao what was Rochelle line on everybody hates Chris?” @allthingskiraj wrote.Others saw the beauty in what she was saying. “I hope all of the anti-marriage / anti-relationship people see this. Marriage / relationships are a BEAUTIFUL THING when done with the right person. The two of you can move mountains together as a collaborative unit,” @totalbodiedbyapril said.
Cole feels the same. “Did it get hard? Yes. Did we have to learn the hard way on how we navigate when one partner in a relationship is going through a visual circumstance? It was incredibly tough…” she continued.
“My husband could be paying right beside me and as much comfort as he can give me and be there and supportive of me, nobody understands what it feels like when you’re literally fighting for your life, but you gotta show up and put a smile on your face.”
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