Who Is Chris Gould? Get to Know Mimi Faust's New Lover
Mimi Faust introduced her new boo Chris to her friends in the season five premiere of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta but who is Mimi's partner and how did Chris get looped into the reality TV world.
VH1 chatted with Chris about meeting Mimi, watching the sex tape, and being prepared to tackle Nikko, if need be.
Are you from Atlanta originally?
Chris: Yes, I'm born and raised. Born in Grady Hospital, I’m from Bankhead. All of those things people from Atlanta are.
What is your career in the real world?
I’m a personal injury paralegal. I work for a workers' compensation attorney who has a paralegal wing. My aspirations were to go to law school, after the fact [but] law doesn’t interest me anymore, music more so.
How did you get involved in this world? Where did you meet Mimi?
I met Mimi at a club through a mutual friend who had invited me out because Mimi had a booking. I was in her VIP and after the club was over, she pulled me to the side and she was just like, "I find you intriguing." I was like, "Oh, okay." [Laughs] They had an after party at Mimi’s house and at the after party, we just kept always separating, just me and her, in conversation. It was just us two, and it kinda went from there.
How much did you know about Mimi's life from reality TV prior to meeting her? Did her reputation precede her?
I don’t watch a lot of TV, period. The most that I knew was the obvious things, the sex tape and that she was on Love & Hip Hop. That was the main two things that I knew about her.
Did you watch Love & Hip Hop Atlanta? Were you a fan?
I watched it but it wasn’t an everyday thing and because I don’t watch a lot of TV I wasn’t that invested. I didn’t know everything going on with her but I definitely knew about the sex tape though. [Laughs]
Had you watched the sex tape then?
The funny thing is I didn’t watch the sex tape until after we got together.
Wasn't that more difficult? To watch it after you guys were in an intimate relationship?
I felt like I needed to see it because it was like the elephant in the room. I’m not going to lie to you, it was awkward. [Laughs]
Knowing Mimi's past relationships with Stevie and Nikko from TV, was there any part of you that was like, I don't want to get wrapped up in this drama?
I definitely didn’t want to get involved with that stuff. I'll tell you I had a very new perspective from it. At first, I just wanted to hit. [Laughs] It kind of progressed from there. We had this connection, from the few years she spent in Atlanta as a child, we found out we grew up in the same apartment complex. You go in with one thought process and then you get to know somebody and then it kind of comes with the territory. But hell yeah, nobody wanted to deal with that craziness at all.
At what point did you realize that it was becoming a real relationship?
The first time I felt like, okay, we’re together it was Halloween of last year. We went Halloween decoration shopping with Eva, and I’ve never dated anybody with a child, so I did have this moment of, this is for real. Like, a real life relationship. The ironic part? We came home and Nikko is waiting outside of her house.
No?!
Yeah. Her homegirl was at the house and was like, Nikko’s outside. We come and we pull up and he kinda forcefully goes, "I wanna talk to you," and I allowed those two to have closure. I wanna say at that moment I felt like it was real because I respected her so much I was so concerned. I was in the house concerned is he...even though I’m a buck twenty, I’m like, I’ll jump on this guy if he does anything wrong. I think that was the first inkling of like, okay, we’re together.
And how did Love & Hip Hop come to be? How did you agree to live your relationship out on television?
They asked if I wanted to do the show and I was like, "Yeah and tell the whole world that’s my woman." That’s the gist of it. I was down for it because I don’t think anybody’s ever seen somebody like me on TV.
You can follow Chris and Mimi's relationship on Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, every Monday at 8/7c!