One “LAHHATL” cast mate who’s given up a significant amount of her “mystery” is Ariane’s best friend, Mimi Faust. Faust and her boyfriend, Nikko Smith, appeared in a highly publicized sex tape that was released online last month. While Davis is no less supportive of her old friend, she’s made it clear that she was not pleased with the idea of Faust appearing in an explicit video.
“No judgment toward my friend, everybody knows I really don’t care for Nikko [but] I’ve accepted her happiness. She says she’s happy,” she says. “As far as the tape goes, I still have my reservations about it. But it’s here now. It’s out there. She has to live with it. I support her as a friend. I don’t condone what happened. I don’t know if it was a mistake or if it was purposely done. My thoughts stay the same. I feel like it was definitely given to Vivid and I’m sticking to that. That’s just how I feel. But as far as Mimi goes, I feel like we all make lousy decisions sometimes and I feel like this is her one. One huge one. I hope she can make the best out of a not-so-positive situation, so to speak. I hope she can come out on top of this.”
“That’s beyond overexposure. It’s a p–n in her mouth for the world to see!” Davis adds. “I don’t know if this is what she was trained to do or if it just happened. I have my thoughts on it and I’ll just keep them to myself. It just kind of freaked me out when I saw it because I know my friend. I know that Mimi has so much potential and can do so many other things. And she already has a platform. So I didn’t understand—if it was purposely done, why? You were already here. It wasn’t like this was your first merry-go-round or your first season. Why couldn’t something else have been thought of?”
The glare of reality TV cameras can change people. And stardom is addictive. But Davis believes that she and Mimi have maintained their strong bond because their sisterhood goes back to long before there was a “Love & Hip-Hop Atlanta.” And she says that’s why her support for her friend never wavers.
“My relationship with Mimi is not new and it’s been over 10 years that we’ve been friends,” says Davis. “I wholeheartedly know her outside of TV and outside of the aggression that everybody else sees. I know Oluremi Faust. And she’s really like my sister. I don’t think a situation like this or anything else can change how I feel about her. Of course, I have some say in how I feel about something. That doesn’t mean I’m going to turn my back on her. Never that. It can be extremely hard to maintain friendships and relationships if you don’t have that control and balance. That’s something I try to keep: control, balance, patience and no judgment. I think that helps me a lot.”
In the previous season of “Love & Hip-Hop Atlanta,” Davis publicly acknowledged her bisexuality. Since then, she’s reportedly been involved with DJ Toni K, a famed deejay out of New York City. But despite the obvious attention from fans and media, Davis says she and Toni’s relationship won’t become fodder for ratings.
“My personal relationship won’t be happening on ‘Love & Hip Hop,’ ” she declares. “My personal drama with my significant other, if I have any, is mine. It’s not for anybody to see. If I have any personal drama, that’s my s—. It’s not to be shared with the world like that. I maintain my healthy relationships with privacy, control patience, balance and love.”
Davis is also quick to point out that her bisexuality may have been news to viewers, but everyone around her has always known about her sexuality.
“Everything I do, I do in my time,” she says. “Of course, Mimi knew. And a lot of people in the community knew. But nobody ever mentioned it because I guess I have a respectable reputation and people really admire me for who I am. It was just my choice to expose my sexuality because I wanted to. I was meeting people and, of course, it was definitely going to come out. I just chose to do it on my time. That’s all.”
“I get all the love in the world,” she says in regards to the public reaction. “I don’t get a lot of negative feedback at all. … People admire me even more now. Because I am so open with who I am. I don’t hide behind anything and I’m not running from myself or trying to please this person. I’m a real person. I’m not a robot. I live my life for me and not for what others think. But it feels really good to know that people recognize real people and embrace it. Girls look up to me — even if they’re not in the LGBT community. They still admire who I am. I’m still a lady and I carry myself like a lady. My sexuality doesn’t define me. I still am Ariane — I just have a girlfriend.”
