Tamar Braxton pens statement calling out “exploitation of reality TV”

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Tamar Braxton has called out the “exploitation of reality TV” in a newly penned statement.

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It comes after the singer and TV personality was hospitalised after attempting to take her own life – which she confirmed in her statement.

Braxton was taken to hospital on July 16, after LAPD responded to an emergency call from her Ritz-Carlton Residences in downtown Los Angeles. In a lengthy Instagram post, Braxton said she is now “on an irreversible path to healing.”

In her post, Braxton made a series of damning remarks about the reality TV industry, which she has been a part of for the past decade as the star of the show Braxton Family Values.

“Over the past 11 years there were promises made to protect and portray my story, with the authenticity and honesty I gave. I was betrayed, taken advantage of, overworked, and underpaid,” Braxton wrote.

The Braxtons founding member and sister of Toni Braxton also revealed that she wrote a letter “asking to be freed” from her “excessive and unfair” work demands, but she said those demands were ignored.

“I explained in personal detail the demise I was experiencing. My cry for help went totally ignored,” she wrote.

View this post on Instagram

First and foremost, Thank you. Thank you to each and every individual who has prayed for me, thought of me, sent me their love and has showered me with their support. 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. 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. 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. Over the past 11 years there were promises made to protect and portray my story, with the authenticity and honesty I gave. I 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. However the demands persisted. It was my spirit, and my soul that was tainted the most. There are a few things I count on most to be, a good mother, a good daughter, a good partner, a good sister, and a good person. Who I was, begun to mean little to nothing, because it would only be how I was portrayed on television that would matter. It was witnessing the slow death of the woman I became, that discouraged my will to fight. I felt like I was no longer living, I was existing for the purpose of a corporations gain and ratings, and that killed me. Mental illness is real. We have to normalize acknowledging it and stop associating it with shame and humiliation. The pain that I have experienced over the past 11 years has slowly ate away at my spirit and my mental. (Swipe to finish )

A post shared by Tamar Braxton (@tamarbraxton) on Jul 30, 2020 at 12:57pm PDT

Elsewhere in the post, Braxton talked about mental health and past issues she has experienced. “Mental illness is real,” she said. “We have to normalize acknowledging it and stop associating it with shame and humiliation. The pain that I have experienced over the past 11 years has slowly ate away at my spirit and my mental.

“I will do everything in my power to aid those who from mental illness including those of us who’s mental was only a result from the toxic, systemic bondage that dwells in television. It was only God’s grace and his mercy on my attempt to end my pain and my life that I am here to utilize my voice.”

Braxton also highlighted the need for a reality TV personalities union, as they currently have “no formal representation that protects our labor, our rights, our voices.”

“They promise us opportunity but produce exploitation, which has only developed a poor portrayal of Black people in show business,” Braxton concluded.

Earlier this week, WE tv announced it would be delaying the upcoming release of Get Ya Life!, a new series that centres around Braxton, due to its “concern is for [Braxton’s] recovery and well-being.”

FOR HELP AND ADVICE ON MENTAL HEALTH:

• YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
• MIND – For mental health support, advice and awareness
• CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
• Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
• The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day

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