Tamar Braxton Opens Up About Childhood Abuse, Unfollowing Her Family And Her Mental State Amid Her Alleged Domestic Violence Incident With Her Ex

Tamar Braxton breaks her silence on “Tamron Hall.” The star opens up about mentally moving away from her family, her alleged domestic violence incident with her ex David Adefeso and the state of her mental health.

Braxton has had a rough year. She is still recovering from her suicide attempt in July, still managing her anxiety and depression while being there for her son. “I’m just going to be 100%. There has been a time where I wanted to, but this was the first time where I’ve actually acted on it,” said Braxton. “I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety due to a circumstance…No, I’m not medicated, but I am in counseling every single day.”

The singer and TV personality then addressed the sexual abuse she endured growing up and how it was shared on TV after someone in her family allegedly gave information about it to the show’s producers. “My family did an episode with Iyanla [Vanzant] and, and I was excited about it. But that excitement came to an end when she decided to tell everyone that I was domestically sexually abused from the ages of six to 16. And I’ve never told anyone that.”  She added: “It’s not an allegation. It’s a fact.” She says that she never told anyone about the abuse. “No.  And it haunts me. Because to be betrayed, just so people can tune in and laugh at you and judge you and criticize you. It was terrible.”

Braxton then opened up about hurting herself and the show’s impact. “It was about feeling like I could never be myself and being misunderstood and having the stigma of the angry Black woman all the time. And that’s not who I am. That’s not what I wanted to portray…It wasn’t just about being an angry black woman, it was about real issues coming up on the show.” Braxton added that the original concept for “Braxton Family Values” is not at all what it has come to be today.

“I love my family. And I don’t want to fight with my family. And I want to be an example of a family who fights and argues and always have turmoil. And now we’re at the point where it’s assaults and threats. This is not the show that I created. I created the ‘Braxton Family Values’ because I wanted to be an example part of the Black community with five Black amazing sisters, with all different walks of life, who can inspire and help and people can learn from our experiences along the way. We wasn’t teaching anything but being devilish and I didn’t want to do that.”

Braxton says that some of the frustration of being a celebrity and having a hit show is equally her responsibility. “I’m not going to sit here and act like a complete victim.  I played a part in that.  I know what it’s like to keep up ratings and keep up having the number one show on a network and having all of those bells and whistles and that comes with a price,” said Braxon according to a press release. “Sometimes you that comes with embarrassing your friends or embarrassing your siblings. I don’t think I sold my soul [to keep the show on]. I don’t think at the time I knew exactly what I was doing. I think that for the show and for my family we wanted to have a great show and sometimes that is making the deal with the devil and that is doing things that you wouldn’t normally do.”

When it comes to unfollowing her family on social media, she says forgiveness will come. “I talk to my mother every single day.” She continued, “Look, I love my sisters. I feel like I have what I want from them. I have their love. I know my family loves me…I know, everybody wants me to blame my family. When you sign up for something like this, and you have the kind of people behind the scenes that you have,” said Braxton. “Forgiveness on both sides. There are things that I’ve done that I’m not happy about and that I’m not proud of. I’ve had my dark moments with my family where I feel like, I’m sure that I betrayed them at some point and I feel like forgiveness all the way around.”

As far as Adefeso goes, Braxton says she’s a survivor. “I am a survivor of a domestic violence relationship. And not at any point was David and I in an abusive relationship.” She also said Adefeso was an amazing partner. “No, let me tell you something that I loved David. He was my best friend. He was an amazing, amazing partner. He was my son’s best friend as well, they were best friends. And it’s just so hard because through everything else I never expected this from him. Now, I have to be real with myself. Is he acting like this because he found me the way that he found me? Probably. I don’t know.”