Tamar Braxton reflects on her mental health issues and her decision to join ‘The Surreal Life’ (exclusive)

Tamar Braxton has a warning for fans looking to check out the seventh season of Surreal Life: “Baby, fasten your seatbelt!” It’s going to be a bumpy ride. »

The 45-year-old singer is one of many stars featured in the new season of the reality series, which returns to the small screen after its original run from 2003 to 2006. The show was one of the first to showcase “celebrity-reality” and had stars living under one roof in a Los Angeles mansion.

Braxton is joined by Stormy Daniels, Dennis Rodman, Frankie Muniz, Kim Coles, Manny MUA, CJ Perry and August Alsina.

Looking back on her experience in the house — which Braxton says she was in for about three weeks — the singer shared with ET’s Rachel Smith that she went into the show hoping it would be similar to her previous experience on celebrity big brother. The star came out of celebrity big brother house as champion of 2019 and should tackle surreal life with a similar attitude.

“I had no idea what I was getting into,” admitted Braxton. “The only person I met in passing was Dennis Rodman and I also met August Alsina in passing, but I never had the chance to know these people until I walked into the house with them.”

Having been a fan of the show when it originally aired, Braxton was thrilled to “relive something I really loved as a kid”. And, while she had different expectations for her reign, the singer shared that she let her guard down “very quickly” and “started having a great time instantly.”

Instead of the intense competition against his housemates like on CBBBraxton explained that she “resonated” most with the competition she faced, striving to “stay in my own lane and make sure the environment [don’t] change my mind and how I want to become now.”

Braxton, who became a vocal mental health advocate after being hospitalized in July 2020 amid a quiet battle with severe depression, noted that playing in surreal life was different from his time Braxton Family Valueswhich she previously admitted had impacted her mental health.

“I’m a great example of how you don’t have to stay where you are, you can work hard and challenge yourself and really make the decision to want to be better and do better and I did that. “, she said. “So I’m back to where I was a year and a half ago, two years ago, just for the next person who feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel , here I am. There is definitely .”

“That kind of reality TV is completely different from having a docuseries about your life that you have absolutely no control over,” Braxton continued. “When people start painting you as something that you’re absolutely not, it can definitely take a toll on your mental health, because then you start thinking, ‘Well, who am I? I do and what kind of person do people get? Which, in my case, was a totally different human than I really, really am.”

She added, “So for a show like this, I can really show who I am, show a fun side that you’ve probably never seen before. I love cracking jokes and I’ll be a help to d other people who are struggling with their mental health and so I was able to help my roommates a little bit with that.”

The singer shared a moment she had with Rodman, which she knew from his past relationship with his sister, Toni Braxton – which the youngest of the Braxton clan cannot confirm or deny was romantic. Rodman was one of the housemates the singer says she became closest to, including Alsina. The latter was a sweet “little brother-big sister” relationship that is new to Braxton, as she is the youngest of six children.

“He’s an artist, he’s a gentleman [and] he’s a father,” the mother-of-one said of Alsina. She noted that most people don’t know “how deep he is” and, while she had many questions On his “entanglement” with Jada Pinkett Smith, the singers leaned on one another while in the house together.

As wild as the singer describes her experience in the Surrealist mansion, the element she highlighted is how “eye-opening” the show will be for viewers. “You’re lucky to know something about one of us that you didn’t already know,” she teases.

The Surreal Life airs Monday, October 24 at 9 p.m. on VH1.

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