Toni Braxton isn’t typically known for being candid about her personal life, but all that changed last year when she dished on feeling angry about paying alimony to her ex-husband. After a mountain of backlash from opinionated fans and her ex himself, however, Braxton is now saying she wishes she hadn’t been so open.
When the singer visited “Sister Circle” on Jan. 23, she discussed her November chat with her best friend Jada Pinkett Smith. On Smith’s Facebook Watch series “Red Table Talk,” Braxton famously proclaimed, “men are the new b—-es.”
“I think that sometimes when you talk about your personal life you probably shouldn’t if you’re an entertainer,” she says presently. “It opens yourself up to have so many opinions and thoughts. Even though you’re on a talk show and you’re telling a little bit of your secrets or your life, no one knows the entire story. So they’re kind of judging you based on whatever they come up with.
“That can be tough sometimes,” she adds. “And then I have kids, so that makes it more challenging.”
Braxton also stated she’s delved into her personal life “more than I should’ve.”
When discussing going through a divorce on “Red Table Talk” last year, Braxton expressed her problem with having to make alimony payments to Mint Condition singer Keri Lewis, whom she divorced in 2013 after 12 years of marriage.
“Yes. I had to pay alimony. I was one of those girls,” she said. “It’s me, it’s Britney [Spears], it’s Halle [Berry], Mary [J. Blige] is allegedly. I was very, very angry about that. But it was because we had an existing prenup and post-nup. I wanted to renege; I’m going to be honest.”
The disclosure led Lewis, who shares two sons with Braxton, to issue a response of his own after many chided Braxton for her remarks.
“Let me start by saying that I really loved Toni … In addition, when she became ill, I did everything I could to take care of her,” he said on Instagram in December. “To give insight to the alimony payments, Toni’s attorney’s suggested she have a prenuptial agreement put in place prior to our wedding, and they drafted one as they saw fit.”
“Because of my love for her and being optimistic of marriage lasting forever, I didn’t feel the need to have an attorney, as I wasn’t going to contest anything in the prenup,” he added. “Fast-forward to 2012 after separating, I moved out and at some point later, Toni mentioned to me that the payments set in the prenup would start being deposited into my account. I received alimony for around three years between 2012 and 2014.”
