Tamar Braxton might be vocal and over-the-top on her reality shows Braxton Family Values and its spin-off Tamar and Vince, but her interview with Ebony.com reveals a quieter side to the singer. The mommy-to-be opened up about battling self-esteem issues.
"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," she says. "(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. 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."
Some of her insecurities stemmed from her abusive relationships in the past — a topic Braxton wasn't keen in diving into despite having talked about it on her show. She also explained that her skin disorder vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose pigmentation, affected her confidence.
"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."
As for the plastic surgery rumors, Braxton assures us she's all real, but doesn't make promises about what could happen after her baby arrives.
"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!"
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(Photo: Valerie Macon/Getty Images)