As the breakout star of her family’s reality series on We TV,Tamar Braxtonproved early on that she was more than just the baby sister ofToni Braxton, the wife of a popular music executive, and a background singer whose first album flopped. By Season 3, she had a record deal signed with her husband and a spinoff series,Tamar & Vince. But as the show progressed, her brass and unsolicited advice dished toward her sisters began to agitate viewers. Even after her sophomore album garnered her two Grammy nominations, her antics continued. There were stories (and clear examples on the screen) of her being difficult to work with. Her treatment of her sisters was unbearable. And it was obvious her marriage toVincent Herbertwasn’t what she claimed. By Season 5 of her spinoff, she was divorced with no record deal, fired from the daytime talk showThe Real, and complainedBraxton Family Valuesruined her image. After a suicide attempt left her hospitalized, she promised to heal out loud with therapy. Buther recent beef withKandi Burrussproves otherwise. Now, she’s appearing onone-off reality specials, dabbling in acting, and touring with others. But her peak has come and gone. Is she to blame? And can she get a second, or in her case —- third, fourth, or fifth — chance?
A Rise and Fall: Tamar Braxton’s Career and Marriage Faux Pas
When Braxton Family Values premiered in 2011, it was a quick hit with We TV viewers. It was exciting to see a family full of talent go through their daily lives, and they all had personalities to match that talent. A quick breakout star became Tamar, the youngest sister. Her catchphrases were catchy and quickly became a fun part of pop culture. She was so popular thatRuPaul’s Drag RacequeenRoxxxy Andrewsportrayed her in the Snatch Game challenge(and she killed it). Tamar’s star was On the Rise.com, but with a quick rise often comes a quick fall. In addition to her fun quips and phrases, viewers also saw the bratty side of her personality. Tamar’s ability to make any given situation about her led to lots of fights and drama throughout the series. On-screen shouting matches and off-screen Twitter battles became a norm. She got into a heated fight with her mother Evelyn Braxton that created riffs in the family dynamic. Shemade accusations about her sister Towanda’s husband, stating that he was “lazy and pimping her”.
RELATED:‘Love & Marriage: Huntsville’: Melody Shari is the Reality Star We Love to Hate
And the drama only continued on her spin-off show with her then-husband, Vincent Herbert. The series was supposed to focus on their marriage and her career, and while her career was clearly flourishing, the cracks in their marriage were beginning to show. And with those cracks in their marriage came cracks in her career. The most notable being her sudden firing as a co-host onThe Real. The producers cited herunpredictable behavior and temper tantrumsbehind the scenes as the reason for letting her go, which is fair. There was also talks that Herbert made things further complicated. It’s natural that she was salty about the whole situation. She felt humiliated by the situation, sharing on an episode ofBraxton Family Values, “I feel disrespected, I feel let down, I feel disregarded because it’s never been a conversation.” Thankfully she still had her spinoff show in addition toBFV.
Tamar and Vincecontinued to film until 2017 ending with Tamar filing for a divorce from Vincent. Tamar was back full-time onBraxton Family Valuesand she came back swinging. Her outbursts and tantrums were on full view again, and she continued to butt heads with her sisters. Tamar even went so far as to say the way the show was being edited was purposefully making her look bad. This isn’t the first time reality series have been accused of the villain edit. She threatened to leave the show, refused to film, and a suicide attempt in 2020 to cancel the show once and for all.
Mental Health Issues, Burruss Beef, and Hope for Redemption
Things with Tamar continued to worsen thanks to her relationship with David Adefeso, which she entered in months after announcing her split from Herbert. The honeymoon phase quickly ended after their engagement, as fighting and accusations of abuse came to light. The worst happened when she attempted suicide in 2020, citing the distance between herself and her family, not feeling connected with her son, and her volatile relationship as reasons why she no longer wanted to live. Thankfully she survived the ordeal, and quickly came after We TV for trying to profit off of her mental health emergency with another spinoff,Get Your Life. Once again, Tamar accused the network of portraying her as the opposite of what she was, and forcing a negative narrative of Adefso, though fans felt Adefeso was not a good influence on her. This is one of a few instances in which Tamar was right in being upset with the network. This was a deeply personal moment in her life and to see it splayed on national television for views must have hurt deeply.
In recent years it seems as if, for the most part, Tamar has calmed down some and taken stock of her life. In 2019 she apologized to her co-hosts onThe Realfor her past behavior and was even recently featured on Peacock’s reality dating seriesQueen’s Court. She found love on the show, becoming engaged to lawyerJR Robinson. All these good things don’t necessarily mean she’s staying out of the drama. Most recently is her beef withKandi Burruss and her husbandTodd Tucker.
Tamar claims that Kandi is trying to ruin her career due to comments she made regarding allegations thatCarlos Kingtried to make an unauthorized XSCAPE biopic, with Tamar saying that they weren’t true. She went to social media claiming that, “a peach and her man” threatened her. Kandi has acknowledged the situation, saying that Tamar’s version of events is not what actually happened.
We’ll never know what really happened, but one thing we do know is that Tamar, even if she has calmed down, will always be Tamar. Her participation inQueen’s Courtshows hope that she can have a career comeback, as long as she doesn’t get in her own way again.
