By: Taren Vaughan
Toni Braxton stepped on the music scene back in late ’80’s, hitting fans with her unique vocals and timeless songs. As her music career has brought her much success, Toni has continued to hold on to her shine as she joined together with her sisters and mother on Braxton Family Values, the popular reality TV show on WE tv. Although the Grammy-Award winner has been named as a legend when it comes to R&B divas, she has been faced with some rough times throughout her career in the industry, one of the most trying moments being when she had to file for bankruptcy. In VH1’s Behind The Music, Toni spoke on the bankruptcy situation and how the public and other celebrities reacted to it. Around the time that she was having financial problems, Toni made an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. And as with most guests on who come on Oprah, she expected to be questioned about her current situation at the time. But Toni says that she didn’t expect Oprah to be so mean to her, leaving Toni in disbelief:
“She was so frickin’ mean to me. I was in shock.”
Toni admitted that she had a lot of respect and love for Oprah prior to the interview and really wasn’t expecting Oprah to come down on her the way that she did:
“I couldn’t believe it ‘cause I loved her so much. I admired her and looked up to her and she pretty much reprimanded me.”
And that Oprah got on her about her purchasing of designer flatware:
“She says to me, ‘I heard you have Gucci flatware. I’m Oprah Winfrey and I don’t have Gucci flatware.”
Toni says though that that was a personal choice that Oprah made because she definitely had the funds to buy the expensive flatware if she really wanted to just as she did:
“You ain’t got Gucci flatware ‘cause you didn’t want to buy it, it’s not because you couldn’t afford it. What do you mean?”
The singer says the comments that were made by Oprah truly crushed her feelings and took a major toll on her career as well:
“And immediately she made me feel this big, this big. That moment completely changed my career. It made people look down on me.”
Behind The Music: Toni Braxton will air tonight at 10pm on VH1.
Ummm, I doubt Oprah is to blame for her career tanking. She’s reaching on this one.
Lol riight
I think she’s reaching too. Toni was a bit of a diva if I remember correctly, and it turned people off.
Doubt it. Toni made terrible decisions with her money and starting feeling herself too much. I think that’s what ruined her career.
But Oprah didn’t make her file for bankruptcy though.
Now that I think about it more. It seems like she expected a different result from appearing on the show. She was obviously going through financial troubles already which in my opinion, speaks to the fact that her career was ruined long before the interview. However, she probably expected the publicity to revive her career in some form or fashion, which is why the questions Oprah asked ticked her off. Yeah Oprah could afford probably afford Gucci silverware, but I believe the point she was trying to make in asking that particular question was “what in the hell did you even NEED them for?” C’mon son. You can’t be mad at anyone but yourself when you find your spending habits have negatively impacted your entire way of living.
she let all thoses happen to her too much spending listen to people who tell you this and this.
She suppose to keep working hard to stay in top
Broke bishes stay blaming everyone else for their failures. She had to resort to reality tv because she didn’t play her cards right. That’s no one else’s fault. IJS.
Poor management and LaFace records are to blame. Think about it, just about everyone with Laface records filed bankrupt, TLC and I think Usher did too back then.
First off Toni, you signed a terrible contract without a lawyer(L.A. Reid is one shady dude, ask TLC). Second, “The Heat” & “More Than A Woman” were awful albums. Third, your management should had check the contract on the Vegas show which also put her in bankruptcy. Lots of terrible choices and Oprah wasn’t your manager, lawyer, record producer or executive. So Toni look at yourself in the mirror and blame yourself.