Toni Braxton is opening up about the effect her battle with lupus has had on her career.
In a new interview on the SHE MD podcast, Braxton reveals that she was told to hide her diagnosis in order to keep her singing career alive.
"I was told to hide that I had lupus. Like, 'Don't tell anyone,'" the 56-year-old singer said on the episode, People reports.
"Who told you that?" co-host Dr. Thais Aliabadi quipped back.
"Management," Braxton continued, sharing that they explained to her that "people get scared around sick celebrities. Nobody gets insured, and I couldn't get insured."
The rheumatologist who first diagnosed Braxton with the disease, Dr. Daniel Jeffrey Wallace, said that several celebrities who have lupus refuse to go public with their journey with the illness.
"I was president of the Lupus Foundation of America and our problem was we had all these celebrities with lupus but none of them would come out," he shared.
Once she went public with her diagnosis, Braxton said it was impossible for her to find work, with many producers refusing to employ her to perform live on stage.
"You would not get work," the "Un-Break My Heart" singer stated. "I didn't get work at first. No one wanted to put me on the stage. 'Well, suppose she collapses on stage? And insurance? How are we going to do that?'"
The singer admits that it took her collapsing during a performance in Las Vegas to get doctors to officially declare that she had the illness.
"It takes an average of three and a half years for somebody with non-organ threatening lupus to get diagnosed and an average of four different doctors," she says, revealing that she visited "at least" six before being told she had it.
While sharing her story, Braxton says that it is "important that I pioneer and be an advocate, and tell other people about it and talk about my story, and hopefully you can help someone."
Selena Gomez has also been open about her battle with lupus. The actress and singer has been living with the auto-immune disease for over a decade. After being diagnosed in 2013, she was forced to cancel her tour, but still did not go public with her experience. It was not until she attended a rehab facility that she chose to tell her story, after online speculation assumed she had attended for too much drugs, partying, and drinking.
Gomez faced a "life or death" experience in 2017 when she needed a kidney transplant, Women's Health reports. She publicly documented her experience after the major surgery, thanking How I Met Your Father actress Francia Raisa for being her match.
Toni Braxton's battle with lupus has not stopped her career from thriving. Her join Las Vegas residency with Cedric the Entertainer, Love & Laughter, is currently running in Las Vegas. She and her family are also returning to WE tv for a new season of Braxton Family Values.
