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Toni Braxton’s appearance on “The Red Table Talk” with Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother Adrienne Banfield Jones didn’t seem like it would cause so much drama and confusion. But it did.
During the sit-down, Toni explained her thoughts and feelings regarding her divorce from Keri Lewis, one of the founding members of Mint Condition and the father of her two sons.
She shared her feelings about why their marriage dissolved in the first place:
“…I remember a few times being in the hospital ill and he would come late in the day or maybe the next day and I would think, ‘Oh, he’s not coming because I’m sick.’ I never talked to my ex-husband about it. I probably should have. But money was just the decoration on the tree. The tree itself was that I felt because I was sick, he left. So it made me insecure. I always felt like if I didn’t get sick and I could have continued to work, we wouldn’t have had that deficit. It wouldn’t have shown its face and we probably would have still been together.”
And also why she resented having to pay alimony to her husband after their divorce was finalized.
She said:
“Yes. I had to pay alimony. I was one of those girls. It’s me, it’s Britney [Spears], it’s Halle, Mary is allegedly. I was very, very angry about that. But it was because we had an existing prenup and post-nup. I wanted to renig. I’m going to be honest. I thought he should say no. Even though, if it were reversed, we would expect him to make sure the lady was ok. And so I can’t really bitch about it too much. However semicolon, whoa. That was a tough pill. I was angry about that. I went through this whole phase, ‘Ooo men are the new bitches.’ That’s how I felt. That’s what I was so angry about. I was like I have to get out the bed so I can pay this debt.”
Lewis didn’t take too kindly to that last part and he posted about it on his Instagram page yesterday.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq7GyBggA3F/
I can understand why he felt he needed to clear his name and clear up the fact that he only received alimony for three years. I get cringing a little hearing yourself referred to as a “b*tch,” particularly if this is something you two hadn’t discussed before.
But I also understand that Toni was describing her feelings, not stating facts. And she never claimed that she was right to feel the way she did. In fact, she said that she recognized that it was in the agreement so she couldn’t complain too much. But at the time, that’s where she was— the sickness being the reason for their divorce and her feelings about him collecting alimony checks. The conversation ended with her saying that Lewis would always be her family not only because of the children they created but because he was a part of her life.
What do you make of Toni’s comments? Do you think they were inflammatory and detrimental to their co-parenting or simply an honest reflection of where she was at the time?
