Tamar Braxton has broken her silence after being hospitalized weeks ago. The reality star took to Instagram on Thursday to thank everyone for their well-wishes and support during the last couple of weeks. She then went on to explain a bit of what she’s been going through.
“In this present moment, it is my only responsibility to be real with myself and to be real with the ones who truly love me and care for my healing,” she wrote. “I have without fail, shared with you my brightest days, and I know that sharing with you what has been my darkest will be the light for any man or woman who is feeling the same defeat I felt just only a week ago.”
“Every one of us has a desire, whether small or big, to make it out of where we come from to an ideal future place that includes, freedom to be who we choose, security for our children and families, and fortune to share with the ones we love. We believe these things can co-exist with just being happy,” she continued. “I believed that, that as a black woman, as an artist, an influence, a personality I could shape my world, and with whom I believed to be my partners, they could help me share my world.”
Braxton added that over the past 11 years there had been “promises made to protect and portray my story,” but she was “betrayed, taken advantage of, overworked, and underpaid.”
“I wrote a letter over 2 months ago asking to be freed from what I believed was excessive and unfair. I explained in personal detail the demise I was experiencing. My cry for help went totally ignored,” she explained. She added that she felt discouraged and felt like “I was no longer living, I was existing for the purpose of a corporations gain and ratings, and that killed me.”
She concluded by adding that mental illness is real and that people have to “normalize acknowledging it and stop associating it with shame and humiliation.”
She then directed fans to a longer message about her situation.
According to multiple reports, the Braxton Family Values star was found unresponsive on July 16 by her boyfriend, David Adefeso, at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in downtown Los Angeles, where they were staying. She was then transferred to a hospital facility in Los Angeles to receive more specialized mental health treatment from top specialists, a spokesperson for Braxton told The Blast.
Adefeso later gave an update on Braxton’s condition, thanking people for their thoughts and prayers.
“Tamar is a beautifully talented woman, a devoted mother, a loving girlfriend, a dear sister and a special friend to countless people. This is an extremely difficult time for Tamar and her family as she navigates professional and personal struggles including her battle with depression,” the statement given to The Blast said. “Tamar is currently receiving the best available medical attention to address those struggles and strengthen her mental health, and her family and I will remain by her side throughout her treatment. Mental health is a common issue, affecting 1 in 5 Americans. Please continue to send prayers and hope as Tamar continues the path to recovery and ultimate happiness. We ask to please respect Tamar’s privacy, and her family’s privacy, during this important time of healing.”
Nene Leakes also revealed in an Instagram Live last week, that she and Braxton had “been dealing with a lot of different issues.”
“I was trying to be her support system and she was being my support system,” Leakes said, adding, “Tamar is now getting the proper help that she needs. I am going to let her talk to you guys when she’s able to talk to you guys.”
Leakes explained that sometimes a person has no other choice but to accept how they are being negatively treated and “that has been happening for her and for myself.”
While she wouldn’t share details about Braxton’s hospitalization, Leakes said that people will find out soon, stating that there is “a lot of stuff” people don’t know about Braxton. “She has been hurting,” she noted. “We both believe in the Lord and sometimes you need a human, a friend who you can lean on and trust. Really trust because trust is hard.”
