After declaring bankruptcy along with her group TLC in the mid-’90s, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins has filed for Chapter 13 for the second time this year after defaulting on mortgages on her Atlanta, Georgia home and failing to keep up with medical bill and car payments.
Watkins, an Atlanta, Georgia resident, filed on October 31, 2011 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after failing to keep up with mortgages on her Duluth, Georgia home, valued at $1.2 million. The documents reveal that Watkins owes creditors $768,642.99 on the home, and has assets that total $1,716,508.
The papers specify her monthly income, which amounts to $11,700 — just $1,200 of which stems from TLC royalties — and that her estimated average future gross monthly income will be $10,500. T-Boz pays $8,821 in monthly expenses, including two mortgages on her primary residence, two vehicles, medical bills and more. She also is owed $250,000 in child support payments, though it is unclear why they have not been collected. Watkins will pay $2,880 per month for a commitment period of 36 months to repay the debt.
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Watkins originally put her 9,654 square feet house up for sale in 2009 for the asking price of $1,250,000, an uptick from the $1,122,700 she paid to purchase the residence in July 2001. The mansion is located in the Sugar Loaf Country Club, described as a “prestigious and successful luxury” community in Southeast Atlanta.
Though largely unreported, the singer originally filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, declaring Chapter 13 on February 25, 2011. She developed a plan to pay the sum of $2,500 per month for a period of 60 months. Watkins was dismissed on July 19, while the case was terminated on September 13 after she “made distribution of all funds paid into the hands of the Trustee.”
Watkins’ financial troubles began as early as June 1995, when she originally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with her group TLC. During an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music,” the trio, consisting of Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, discussed the incident in detail, explaining that a poor recording contract with LaFace Records through their manager Perri “Pebbles” Reid’s Pebbitone shingle caused them to slip into the financial red.
“The bad thing about the deal was that Pebbles had us signed to so many deals. She just had her fingers in the pot all across the board,” Lopes said on the show, claiming Reid was making business decisions without their approval. Even after severing ties with Reid, the trio was forced into bankruptcy after selling 10 million records on account of amounting expenses and debt to their record label.
“People to this day still do not believe that we were broke — but we were, OK?” said Watkins. The group made $5.6 million in profit, but the sum was cut down to a mere $50,000 per member after paying back their label for funding the album and its promotion; managers, lawyers and accountants; and income taxes.
Over the past few years, Watkins has appeared on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and as a consultant on “The Celebrity Apprentice” where she was fired for volunteering to return to the boardroom. The 41-year-old, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, revealed in October 2009 that she overcame a potentially fatal brain tumor, from which she suffered for three years.