Tamar Braxton has broken her silence.
On Thursday night, the 43-year-old singer/reality TV star made her first public statement since being hospitalized earlier this month. Braxton confirmed she had attempted suicide, but she was now on "an irreversible path to healing" and is dedicated to breaking the stigma of mental health issues.
"Mental illness is real. We have to normalize acknowledging it and stop associating it with shame and humiliation," she wrote in the post. "The pain that I have experienced over the past 11 years has slowly ate away at my spirit and my mental."
Braxton went on to address the events that contributed to her mental health struggles. She specifically accused WE tv of exploiting her and ignoring her cries for help.
"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," she wrote about the network, which airs the Braxton Family Values reality series. "I explained in personal detail the demise I was experiencing. My cry for help went totally ignored."
She continued: "... 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."
Braxton said she will do everything she can to help others who struggle with mental health issues, specifically those whose illnesses are a "result from the toxic, systematic bondage that dwells in television." She also pointed out that her fellow reality stars "have no union, no coat of protection, no formal representation that protects our labor, our rights, or our voices. They promise us opportunity but produce exploitation, which has only developed a poor portrayal of Black people in show business."
Braxton thanked everyone who had sent her love and support in the weeks since her hospitalization.
"My rise will not be in vain ..." she wrote. "I pray you will stand with me and be courageous enough to share your own truth."
Braxton was hospitalized on July 16 after her boyfriend, David Adefeso, reportedly found her unresponsive at a Los Angeles Ritz-Carlton hotel. Shortly after, WE tv released the following statement to NBC:
Tamar Braxton has been part of the We TV family for nearly a decade. We are keeping her and her family in our thoughts and prayers and joining with her fans sending strength and healing at this difficult time.
