It’s been a hard year for Toni Braxton. After canceling concerts due to a heart condition, it now seems that she has had a benign lump removed from her breast. Toni actually discovered the lump while filming Dancing with the Stars, and postponed having it removed until she was off the show on October 20th.

The 41-year-old admits that she discovered the benign tumour before she appeared on the ABC programme, but decided to wait until she was eliminated from the contest to undergo surgery.

And Braxton is now relieved that she exited the show early.

She tells Us Weekly.com, “Getting the boot on the show was actually a blessing in disguise for me. My grandmother on my dad’s side died of breast cancer, and I have aunts on both sides that have breast cancer.”

Contact Music

Toni is going to be fine, and this will be a reminder to people that finding a lump on your breast doesn’t mean you’ve got cancer. Whatever happens you really need to go get it checked out. Don’t be afriad to go to the doctor.

Toni Braxton has recently created a PSA for parents, comparing her odds of being a successful musician to the odds of her having a child with autism, the point being that the odds are 1 in 150 that you may have a child with autism and that you should learn the early signs. The sooner autistic children get help the better the outcome for them. Toni has been outspoken about her son Diezel’s autism, saying that if he had been diagnosed sooner (he was three) he could have been helped. She was angry that doctors wanted to take a wait-and-see approach, when she felt treatment should have started immediately.

Toni Braxton is shown on 11/7/08 at a Lupus fundraiser she hosted in LA. Credit: WENN

Toni Braxton, who is a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, was admitted to the hospital last night after suffering from chest pains during her Las Vegas show. Braxton found out that she had pericarditis during her last pregnancy.

R+B star Toni Braxton has been admitted to a hospital in Las Vegas. The “Unbreak My Heart” singer was taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital on Monday night after her show at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, where she has been performing since 2006.

The full details surrounding Braxton’s hospital visit are currently unclear, but she is known to suffer from the heart condition pericarditis, where the sack surrounding the heart becomes inflamed. She is said to be in good condition, according to local news station Fox 5.

Braxton is due to return to the Las Vegas stage on Wednesday (09Apr08), but whether or not that show has been cancelled as a result of her new health problem has yet to be revealed.

[From Contact Music]

Wikipedia says pericarditis symptoms generally present as “Chest pain, radiating to the back and relieved by sitting up forward and worsened by lying down, is the classical presentation. Other symptoms of pericarditis may include dry cough, fever, fatigue and anxiety. Pericarditis can be misdiagnosed as myocardial infarction (heart attack), and vice versa.” There’s a wide variety of causes, ranging from a viral or bacterial infection to Lupus to a heart attack. It sounds like Toni pulled through her whole show, which is amazing. Hopefully Braxton will be okay and make a quick recovery.

Here’s Toni Braxton performing at the House of Blues in Chicago on 3/22/2006. Images thanks to WENN.

Toni Braxton, she of little clothing and the crazy nip slips, has been sued for breach of contract for not paying for her clothing. Ironic, no? Anthony Franco, a wardrobe and costume designer, sued Braxton for the $15,000 she still owes him for work he did for her “Toni Braxton: Revealed” Las Vegas show. Braxton was supposed to pay Franco $35,000 for designing the whole wardrobe for her show, and she wrote him a check for that amount. However she stopped payment on it. She eventually paid him $20,000 – leaving $15,000 still owed.

“Is there a chink in Toni Braxton’s business chain?

“The “’Unbreak My Heart’ chanteuse was sued for breach of contract Friday by a costume designer who claims Braxton bounced a check and has yet to pay their agreed-upon fee for his work on her Las Vegas show, ‘Toni Braxton: Revealed.’

“Plaintiff Anthony Franco, who says he designed the entire wardrobe for Braxton’s standing act at the Flamingo Hotel, claims he has only collected $20,000 of the $35,000 that’s owed to him and that the check he tried to cash was returned for insufficient funds because the defendants put a stop-payment on it.

“Liberty Entertainment Inc., which issued the check, has also been named as a defendant.

“Franco is seeking $15,000 in compensation, plus unspecified damages for the alleged slight, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“Braxton’s reps have not yet commented on the suit.”

[From E! News]

Braxton has a history of money and management problems. She filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection ten years ago, owing almost $4 million. According to Wikipedia, “All of her personal household possessions were tagged and marked for sale to pay off her creditors, including her prestigious awards.” In January 2007 she filed a lawsuit against her ex-manager Barry Hankerson for “fraud, deception and double dealing,” for convincing her to leave her longtime record label for his own. Hankerson is the uncle of the late R&B singer Aaliyah, and was her manager as well. She lost the suit, in a big way – the judge ruled that she had to pay Hankerson $375,000 and a percentage of the sales from her next album.

Toni Braxton sorta seems to have a screw lose. I really hate it when celebrities are always losing their clothes. 99.9% of the population walks around everyday and is able to keep their naughty bits to themselves. It’s not that hard. It’s not indicative of classiness when anyone does it, but Toni is almost 40 years old – that’s way beyond the age where she can pretend to be dumb and not know what she’s doing. And she seems to think she doesn’t have to pay for things, services included. Here’s some super classy pictures of her performing.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Toni Braxton at the House of Blues in Chicago in March 2006. Header image is from the Something New Movie Premiere in January 2006. The last pic is from 27th Annual American Music Awards in January 2000. I just thought it was funny. Images thanks to PR Photos.