Originally posted Thursday, September 27, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
With the Braxton sisters riven over financial and personal issues regarding WE-TV's "Braxton Family Values," Traci Braxton defended her decisions to media outlets Thursday.
The show, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m., featured part one of a two-part season six finale featuring the sisters meeting with Iyanla VanZant trying to "fix" their issues. It isn't easy, as this clip shows VanZant walking out in disgust:
Traci herself said in an interview Thursday she was initially skeptical of VanZant’s abilities to fix anything.
"Going through the process, I became more open to it," said Traci, who has an album out ("On Earth") and a whiskey line (Black Cowboy Whiskey) to promote. "She didn't fix my life but she opened up a lot of things going on with me and my sisters." For instance, she said, Tamar has serious abandonment issues going back to childhood. Traci said she had no idea and apologized to Tamar in the session.
“Braxton Family Values” remains WE-TV’s most popular show and many of the Braxtons feel they deserve more financial remuneration. For a time over the summer, all the sisters refused to film - except Traci.
“I wanted to fulfill my obligations in my contract,” she said, preferring to wait until then end of season six and its 26 episodes before gunning for more cash. She was clearly worried WE-TV would just cancel the show and a primary source of income for most of them would disappear.
Eventually, the family resumed shooting though relationships remain icy. Traci doesn’t really correspond with Tamar. With the other sisters, she avoids talking business.
“I’m still hoping the show continues to have a long run,” she said. “Everyone goes through problems in their family. As long as we have stories to show the viewers, I think we can stay on. Families argue. It’s the thing about coming back together and loving on each other.”
She said she expected and received no shortage of criticism for her decision.
“Some say I should stick with my sisters,” Traci said. “Some say they’re proud of me for sticking with my guns and kept the show running.”
She said all the negativity emanating out of the gossip sites and social media is not surprising and comes with the territory. “Everyone wants to know about the Braxtons,” she said. “We’re pretty popular.”
