Transcription
My sister Tracy is the one who said to me, "Tony, you know when you make it, you can help us. Come on." So I always tried to abide that, but the responsibility of it was so heavy for me. I feel I can—like I can never live my life. And I never used to say it; I never used to say anything to anybody. But since we've been doing this show, I've been saying it, y'all.
Since the Braxtons' return to our screens, it's been nothing but drama. Evidently, these sisters cannot get along. And while there's something new coming up every day about them, allegedly Tony has been talking about how fed up she is and how she's literally had to carry the rest of her family on her back for years—13 or 14. My mom, she had a really bad accident; she fell, and her back was really messed up, so she was in the hospital a long time. And so I was a surrogate parent for a moment. Where was Dad? Working; had to make a living; had six kids. So what would it look like for you if—if it were different, if you didn't have that responsibility, and if they—they weren't leaning on you? What would your life look like? What would you be doing?
Oh, I would have soared higher. You think so? Absolutely. Now there's no denying that Tony is the most successful Braxton, with seven Grammys to her name and 70 million albums sold. Tony is actually one of the most successful women R&B artists of all time. She started singing with her sisters in the Braxtons in the late 80s, then signed for a solo album. Tony Braxton released in 1993, and it was an instant hit, climbing to number one on the Billboard 200 and moving 10 million copies. The standout songs, "Breathe Again" and "Another Sad Love Song," also helped power the album, whose producers included Babyface and Antonio La Reed. Tony then followed up her debut with another successful album, *Secrets*, which included the smash "Unbreak My Heart." The single sold 10 million copies worldwide, ranking as one of the top singles ever released. She has actually recorded nine studio albums, the most recent released in 2020, and all of them have been pretty successful.
With Tony making all this money earlier on, she had to take care of her entire family and cover most of their financial needs, and it wasn't easy for her. She's actually talked about how she was the one who had to take care of things while her other sisters took a back seat. And only Tamar helped her with a few of the bills. Mommy and Daddy's divorce, and a divorced mom pretty much got nothing. I'm not going to leave my mom by herself, so I'm going to make sure my mother's taken care of. None of my siblings have helped me take care of my mother to make sure she was okay, except for Tamar. No one said anything before—before Vince. Mommy's car insurance is due; let's help Tony with Mommy's car insurance. Tamar needs a car. Basically, what Tony was saying was that while Tamar is a whole trip, she was helping their mother long before she was rich herself, while the other sisters basically said, "Well, Tony got it; she can do it."
And what bothered Tony even more was that while she was the one taking care of things financially, Trina and Towanda demanded that they get paid for working with her, while Tamar, who was helping with the bills, was not asking for a dime. On top of that, when we do shows, you still charge her? I don't charge her. When's the last time I charged you for a show? For years, my sister Tamar never charges me to do background singing for me. My sister Trina does. My sister Towanda, she's an executive assistant; that makes sense for her to get a salary. I just wish every situation was not about Tony's savings and loans. I have never charged Tony. And what I am saying is, it pissed me off when I saw that you and Tana get paid. I was pissed off. Okay, I get that. Trina deserved to be compensated for the decades of backup singing she did for Tony; she had herself and two kids to take care of. And every time she had to sing for Tony, it was taking time away from her doing something else that could have made her money for herself. But the problem, according to Tony and Tamar, was that even with her getting paid, she wasn't pulling any weight financially, and Tony still had to be the provider. It's okay; it's okay. I got you. I don't want to talk about that man, but it's the truth.
You know what else was even more devastating? While Tony was basically the breadwinner of the family, she also had financial issues of her own. I mean, despite all of the success, which included generating more than $170 million in record sales for her record label, Tony Braxton filed for bankruptcy more than once. The thing is, she was generating millions for her record label, Arista, but she made less than 35 cents per album. She even filed a lawsuit against her label. And in January 1998, eight weeks after filing a lawsuit against the label, Tony also filed for bankruptcy. Then later, she revealed that she declared bankruptcy due to recording contract issues that amounted to her receiving less than $2,000 in royalties and having to reimburse her record label for clothes, travel, studio time, and music video costs. Her situation was so bad that at one point, Tony was accused of fraudulently transferring $53,490 to her husband, Carrie Lewis, in order to avoid paying back creditors in her bankruptcy case. Remember, she also did that interview with Oprah, and while she thought the interview was going to make people a little sympathetic to her financial situation, the interview turned out to be a very humiliating and demeaning experience for Tony Braxton, who felt that Oprah was judgmental, condescending, and unsympathetic.
Please welcome Tony Braxton. She was so freaking mean to me. I—I was in shock. Do you take responsibility for the situation that you're in right now? 100%. 100%. 100%. I couldn't believe it, 'cause I loved her so much; I admired her and looked up to her, and she pretty much reprimanded me. I read that you were upset about stories that you're overspending caused this. She says to me, "I hear you have Gucci flatware. I'm Oprah Winfrey, and I don't have Gucci flatware." First of all, I didn't know Gucci made silverware. You ain't got Gucci flatware 'cause you didn't want to buy it; it's not 'cause you couldn't afford it. What do you mean? And immediately she made me feel this big—this big. That moment completely changed my career; it made people look down on me.
At the time, there were also reports that Oprah purposely humiliated Tony on her show and tipped off her record label about what she was planning to do. I mean, there's a source that literally said, "Tony Braxton filed for bankruptcy in the midst of a contract negotiation." It looked bad for the face because Braxton had sold more than 16 million records. When Braxton went on the Oprah Winfrey show to discuss the bankruptcy, Winfrey called LaFace and said, "Tony's on my show today; she intends to make you guys look really bad, but I think it's messed up, so watch the show." Anyway, who—Oprah and her alleged conniving ways aside, in 2010, Tony filed for bankruptcy again, but this time it was because she was diagnosed with microvascular angina and then lupus, which forced her to cancel her lucrative Las Vegas contract. Mhm. Like, a lot of people don't understand my second bankruptcy is because I was sick. I have lupus, and my show in Vegas got canceled, and the insurance wouldn't cover it. The insurance didn't cover it, so I had to pay myself, and that's a lot—that was a lot of money. That's a lot of money to put up a show. People don't understand: if you see a concert, you see the lights, you see the band on stage, the artist pays for all that—the hotel rooms, the salary. So then you have nothing left over.
In addition, in 2019, when the IRS filed a first lien against her on December 4th, the lien stated that Tony owed a total of $340,252.99 in back taxes for 2017. Days later, the state of California Franchise Tax Board also hit her with a tax lien of their own, over $116,154.64 for money owed, bringing the total to nearly half a million in back taxes. Well, we've all had people speculating that her family probably contributed to all these problems, 'cause Tony had to take care of everyone while also fighting an expensive incurable disease and getting shortchanged by her label. Now, allegedly, when their show returned, the sisters were having issues with payment and couldn't understand why Tony and Tamar were being paid so much more than they were. Again, allegedly, this caused a huge argument, especially for Tony, who said she deserves to be paid more than all of them, based on reports. At some point, producers shut down filming of the Braxtons after a heated argument between the sisters, and it reportedly got so bad that Tony walked out and said she was done. Tony also reportedly said that before Tracy passed, they promised her they would get along, yet no one is getting along, and things have actually gotten worse.
Well, based on reports, it's not even just about the money when it comes to Tony; she is just done with all the drama we've been seeing, like how there were reports that none of the sisters went to the premiere party of Tamar and Miss E's cooking show. Apparently, a heated argument took place just two days before the premiere, and it led to the sisters missing the premiere. Next thing we know, Towanda was out here posting cryptic posts like, "To everyone who has distanced themselves from me, kindly stay there." Towanda also tied the knot with her longtime partner, Shawn Hall, in an intimate ceremony in Decatur, Georgia, after more than nine years together. And while her sisters, Tony and Trina, stood by her side as bridesmaids, Tamar was noticeably absent. Okay, we already know that the relationship between Tamar and Towanda is not great, and even when they were filming the first season of the show, that was made clear from the first episode. Towanda was asked how it felt not to have access to her sister Tamar, and before she could even answer the question, Tamar asserted that Towanda doesn't care. Tamar then went on to say that Towanda makes more of an effort to stay in contact with Tony and Trina than with her, and she revealed that she usually reaches out to Towanda first, and that Towanda only reaches out when they are filming.
It's—I respect where people are; I don't engage; I don't pour into certain types of energy; I make different choices in my life, and that's just where I am now. This is TV. [Laughter] Josh, outside of yesterday and today, when is the last time you talked to me? Um, I don't recall. It wasn't my birthday, 'cause you didn't call me. My birthday's September; here we are in March. On the other hand, Towanda also said that she was unsure of the last time she spoke to her sister, but she knew that Tamar did not reach out to her for her birthday in September, though they filmed the episode in March. In fact, she appeared to be so fed up with Tamar that she revealed that she is only focused on those living in her household—i.e., her children and her partner. Well, with the sisters arguing, people obviously took sides, with some saying they believe Towanda has long-standing issues with Tamar, while others said that Towanda is simply jealous of Tamar's success. Basically, this has also caused squabbles with the other family members, and reportedly Tony is just done. And let's not forget how Tamar went on a meltdown before she disabled her social media accounts, and she made several explosive posts on her ex's page claiming that her family is toxic. In her now-deleted post on ex, she wrote, "Y'all have no idea; none of the gaslighting is crazy, and I'm going back into treatment. OMG, I just pray that my marriage can be saved and my life can be spared. My family is awful." She also said in a different post, "I'm so mad at my life; my family is toxic; I should have never went back to BFV." Oh, and Tamar also recently blocked Tony on social media, and Tony only found out that she was blocked when she tried to tag Tamar on her birthday. Tony shared that she might have been blocked by her sister when she wrote, "I wanted to repost that gorgeous picture of you, but I'm blocked again." Anyway, happy birthday, Tay.
Well, on the other hand, Tamar said that was pure gaslighting, 'cause Tony could have just called her. Tamar later posted screenshots of a text message thread between her and her sister in her Instagram story that showed them trying to pinpoint which city the other was located in just a day prior. Child, it's been one drama after the other, but I would love to know your take on how Tony was the breadwinner of the family for decades. Do you think her family dried her up? Did they contribute to her financial troubles? I've even seen people say that all the emotional stress may have caused Tony's incurable disease. But let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.