Tamar Braxton Talks Being Abused, Plastic Surgery And Skin Disorder

Tamar Braxton Speaks On Skin Bleaching And Tells EBONY She Hasn’t Had Plastic Surgery But She May Get A Tidday Lift After The Birth Of Her Baby!

- By Bossip Staff
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We love us some Tamar, but some of these photos are not helping her get rid of those pesky lightening rumors.

The singer sat down for an exclusive with Ebony.com, check out some excerpts below:

On Her Vitiligo Diagnosis (Skin Disorder):

Anybody with skin issues knows that that’s a very sensitive subject. And that’s why I’ve never shared that I have Vitiligo, because I do. I’ve always had it, since I was a young girl. It’s not as bad as others because everybody has it differently, but I’ve certainly had mine diagnosed. That’s why I tan. People say, “You bleach your skin!” But I tan just so I can have a better tone on my skin, boo!

It’s gotten worse since I’ve gotten pregnant. If you shake my hand now, to me it’s more noticeable. But when you get diagnosed with a skin disorder, it’s hard. It does weigh on your self-esteem. It really does. But I’m done defending that. I’m not bleaching my skin and if I was bleaching my skin and I felt like saying so, I would, but for the record, I am not.

LOL @ “if I was and I felt like saying so, I would”…

On Plastic Surgery Rumors:

“I don’t have plastic surgery. I never had plastic surgery. I had a nose procedure done because I had to. I had no cartilage in my nose, I have a piece of cartilage from my ear put into my nose. I had a medical procedure done. I have no plastic in my nose. And when I shared that with the world, now I have Botox, and different kind of fillers. Now I touch my face, which I never touch my face…Everything is real on me.”

“After I have my baby, I might can’t say that everything is real on me. I might get my breasts done. Who knows if my breasts gonna go down to my ankles–I can’t do that!”

Hit the flip for Tamar’s confessions about pregnancy cravings and her relationship with Vince.

On Pregnancy Cravings:

She’s having crazy Dunkin Donuts’ apple fritters cravings, but Vince won’t get them for her, she says. “He’s like, ‘Nope. Don’t do it. You’re gonna be mad.” Vince chimes in, “Even before the pregnancy, she was very conscious about her weight, so I’m just helping her to be a better person.”

On Her Marriage With Vince Herbert:

“The thing that I love the most about (Vincent) is that he’s helped me with accepting what happened to me and helped me realize that that’s not my make-up, (being abused) is not who I am, it hasn’t hindered who I am, it hasn’t stopped my integrity. I really appreciate him more and more everyday because he’s helped my self-esteem issues so much.”

Awwww… For those unfamiliar with Tamar’s story as a domestic violence survivor, hit the flip for her detailed explanation.

On Being The Victim Of Domestic Violence In The Past:

During an episode of Tamar and Vince, she very briefly confessed that she’d been in two abusive relationships, back-to-back, and that one of her ex-boyfriends had dragged her out of her apartment by her hair, a stunning admission with no on-screen follow-up. When I ask her about it, she admits, “I almost had to tell my story to each individual and then I decided that’s not what I’m going to do. I can’t make anybody believe, I can’t change anybody’s mind about anything. (The abuse,) it happened. I’m not all the way comfortable with sharing a lot of what happened to me (yet), but what I said was true. When I’m ready to talk about my abusive past I will, I’m sorry that I’m not. But if it wasn’t for (God), I wouldn’t be here.”

“My husband definitely doesn’t abuse me,” she says, explaining rumors her brother-in-law Gabe started about her and Vince when trying to take the heat off of himself by spewing lies about the family. “But, that’s been addressed (with Gabe). We don’t really have a close relationship anymore …but I’m respectful. I say ‘hi’ and ‘bye,’ and that’s where we leave it.”

But hints of her past abusive relationships subconsciously emerge in her playful banter with Vince. In the theme song to their spinoff show about the ups and downs of marriage, Tamar sings to Vince, “Sometimes I want to hit ya.” And on the show, she often calls Vince, “Ike,” and he calls her “Anna Mae,” a reference to the notoriously abusive relationship between Ike and Tina Turner. But, she says, she never thought about these things within the context of being a survivor of abuse. To the two of them, it’s all in fun and is more a reference to the couple working together in the music industry and Vince being her manager and sometimes being too demanding than it is to Ike’s actual violent history with Tina.

She admits that the Tamar we see today, confident and opinionated, is only a few years in the making. The one who will cut you down before you can cut her down, she says, “Definitely, definitely, definitely” came from being abused and feeling powerless in her relationships:

“I haven’t always been vocal about my feelings, especially in a relationship. Now, I make sure that I’m very vocal about my feelings, everybody knows how I feel. Sometimes it’s over the top and most of the time it’s ‘Team Too-Much,’” she laughs, “But I have to do a lot. (I was) a shy person who had self-esteem issues trying to figure it out — now, I’ve gotten over my hangovers. You say, I’m comfortable and confident, it took a long time to get there. Maybe like a year or so before Braxton Family Values, I wasn’t that person. I was faking it til I make it, pretty much.

“I didn’t feel like I was beautiful. I didn’t feel like I deserved things. I didn’t feel like I could stand in a room and speak or even sing and have people who wanted to listen.”

Damn, she’s a strong woman! Does this admission make you respect Tamar more than you may have in the past?

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