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Photo by James DittigerAs Toni Braxton promotes her Lifetime biopic Unbreak My Heart, she admits she has one regret about her rather conservative life. She would like to be bold like Rihanna.
“I wish I would have lived more and enjoyed my 20s and the beginning of my career,” she tells The Baltimore Sun. “Not to say I should have been the bad girl, but I love Rihanna,” she says “She’s like, ‘I’m going to live my life and live it my way, by my rules.’ I love that freedom that she has. I wish I were more like her and had that spirit like she has.”
Braxton and her four sisters grew up in Severn, Maryland with parents who were both pastors, so they had a strict childhood. “I don’t think people understood that it was a cult-like upbringing,” she says. The film is based on her 2014 memoir, and Braxton serves as executive producer and narrator. Unbreak My Heart traces the joy and pain of her life, from selling 40 million records, to being bankrupt twice and suffering from lupus. Braxton feels the project shows that she’s a survivor.
“I’m proud and excited for myself,” she comments, “because when you’ve been through all of that — I see the movie and say, ‘That happened and you’re still here?’ — well, kudos.”
Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart debuts Saturday, January 23 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
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