Toni Braxton Opens Up About Marriage to Rapper Birdman: 'We've Been Friends for Over 25 Years'

Toni Braxton is getting candid about her marriage to Birdman.

During an appearance on TODAY with Jenna & Friends on Wednesday, Oct. 29, the singer and actress was asked about her one-year anniversary with the rapper and record executive.

"We've been friends for over 25 years. He used to go to all my shows. He was there for my baby shower, that kind of thing," Braxton, 58, said, adding that he "never crossed the line."

She added of Birdman, 56, "He was my dearest, dearest friend. He came to see me when I did Beauty and the Beast and he got there just before intermission and I'm like, 'Why are you here so late?' He's like, 'Well, I thought it was an opening act.' I'm like, 'It is Broadway. There is no opening act, dear.'"

"So we've been friends for a long time and a love connection started happening a couple of years ago," Braxton concluded, later adding that they're like "peas and carrots."

Braxton and Birdman secretly got married on Aug. 8, 2024. On their one-year anniversary, the "Un-Break My Heart" singer shared a wedding-themed photo on Instagram. She captioned the post "Happy Anniversary."

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The pair started dating in 2016 when Braxton found a strong support system with the rapper amid her lupus diagnosis. In 2018, the "Just Be a Man About It" singer told PEOPLE that she never expected her friendship with her “bestie for like 15 or 16 years” would turn into something more. “I never thought we would be dating or getting married,” she said. 

That same year, in February 2018, she confirmed they were engaged after two years of dating in the trailer for a new season of her family’s hit WeTV reality show Braxton Family Values.

By the start of 2019, however, Braxton revealed they had called the engagement off. A the time, they cleared their Instagram accounts of their photos together and unfollowed each other.

Then, in late January 2019, the couple sparked reconciliation rumors after reuniting onstage at Braxton’s tour stop at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.

A few years later, in December 2023, Braxton shut down marriage rumors and claimed they were both single. She wrote on Instagram: "My dear friend @birdman and I are not married...never been married. We are both single."

In April of this year, TMZ confirmed that Braxton filed for divorce via court documents, two weeks after her wedding. In the docs, she listed their date of separation to be Aug. 10, 2024 — just two days after saying "I do."

However, five months later, she dismissed the divorce petition, which Birdman signed off on.