TONI BRAXTON hitmaker "UN-BREAK MY HEART" managers and agents stress that she doesn't reveal that she had been diagnosed with Lupus, as they feared it would affect her music career.
The R&B star had already gone public with the news she suffers from heart condition pericarditis, but her handlers didn't want her to tell the world it was caused by autoimmune disorder lupus - which she did in November (11).
She tells the Los Angeles Times, "When I found out I had lupus, everyone told me don't tell anyone because of my line of business. They knew I had heart disease, but they didn't know it was (caused by) lupus.
"Everyone is much more comfortable when you have heart disease. They're educated about that. But when I mentioned the word 'lupus' to people, they were like, 'Oh, my God!'
"In my line of business, if a promoter is promoting me to do a show, I could have a flare (up), and I'd have to cancel the show. I can get insurance, but it's incredibly expensive."
Her poor health forced Braxton to scrap a series of lucrative concerts in Las Vegas in 2008, revealing she simply couldn't commit to staging a lengthy run of shows.
She's not the only star who suffers from the disease - Lady Gaga recently revealed she's "borderline positive" for lupus.
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