Ashlee Braxton is spilling some tea that could burn the whole Braxton family down.
But what exactly is she saying?
And why is she doing all this?
Ashlee Braxton’s Heartbreaking Story
In late December 2024, just before the new year, Ashlee posted a heartbreaking story on TikTok where she shared that something traumatic happened to her when she was 16 years old.
And considering that she was a minor, you likely know where this story is going.
She said that during the summer of the year when she turned 16, which would have been around 2008, she was spending time with one of her aunts.
As any fan of the Braxton family knows, there are a lot of aunts in the family.
Ashlee didn’t say which aunt, but fans have definitely been speculating.
We’ll get into that later.
Ashlee Braxton Confesses Aunt’s Husband Sent Her Inappropriate Messages
Anyway, Ashlee said that when she got back from her summer trip at her aunt’s, her aunt’s partner and husband at the time started texting her.
It wasn’t appropriate texting, either.
He was being really suggestive in his texts.
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Ashlee admitted that she had no idea how to respond at the time, especially considering that he was her uncle through marriage.
She never said exactly what she wrote back, but considering that the messaging continued on, she might have been suggestive back – but again, only because she had no idea how to respond.
Ashlee Braxton’s Mom Calls Out Daughter’s Aunt
Either way, her mom went through her phone one day and noticed all these inappropriate messages.
That’s when things started to get really messy.
Her mom called her aunt and told her what Ashlee and her uncle had been saying to each other.
It was obvious that her uncle was the one who had initiated everything.
With the secret out, her aunt apologized and supported Ashlee.
She really sympathized with her.
At this point, Ashlee felt seen and heard.
She also realized just how bad this was and what it meant for her uncle.
Clearly, he had an attraction to her despite the fact that she was a minor, so he had some real problems.
Braxton Family Swept Incident Under The Rug
Ashlee said that at this point, the family basically decided to sweep the whole incident under the rug.
No one talked about it anymore.
It was like it had never happened.
That didn’t sit well with Ashlee, though, because the whole experience had really traumatized her.
At first, she thought that this was just something that Black families tended to do.
If there was some sort of family secret or scandal, they just swept it under the rug and refused to talk about it.
However, as she went about the world and traveled, she noticed that this was something that people did everywhere.
If there was a family scandal, almost everyone chose to sweep it under the rug and ignore it.
No one wanted to confront that family member and get justice for the victim.
How Incident Affected Ashlee’s Mental health
Ashlee said that even she was guilty of that.
For the next 16 years, she was basically quiet about the incident.
However, like all trauma, it began to fester inside her.
There was a wound there that just wasn’t healing.
It started to impact her mental health more and more.
So, when she turned 32 years old, she finally started talking about it with her therapist.
It was only through therapy that she felt like she could finally unpack what had happened to her and start healing from it.
Ashlee Braxton’s Aunt Blamed Ashlee
There was another reason why she felt ready to confront what had happened to her, too.
Her aunt, the one whose husband was responsible for traumatizing her, had stopped speaking to her.
Ashlee said that she had noticed that her aunt began to pull away over the years.
Although she initially believed her and supported her, something changed.
And this part of Ashlee’s story is particularly sad.
Ashlee said that her aunt started blaming her.
She thought that Ashlee was the one who had initiated everything and encouraged her husband to text her.
She victim-blamed her and then basically abandoned her.
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She stopped talking to her altogether.
There are so many problems with this.
For one, what was the aunt thinking?
Her husband, who is her ex-husband now, clearly had no problem talking dirty with his niece.
Even though they weren’t related by blood, that’s a major ick factor.
Did she not see the red flags?
Add on top of that the fact that his niece was also a minor.
That basically makes him a monster.
Ashlee Braxton’s Aunt Betrays Her
Yet, she wanted to stick by him and stay married to him.
The fact that she started to blame Ashlee for what had happened suggests that maybe her husband tried to spin the whole thing and pin it on her.
He likely told the aunt that Ashlee was the one teasing him, and he had no choice but to flirt back.
Since her aunt likely still had feelings for her husband and didn’t want to break up her family, she chose to victim-blame Ashlee instead of supporting her.
It’s a terrible betrayal.
You might think that Ashlee would hate her aunt for not supporting her.
However, she said that she was not mad at her aunt.
If anything, she actually sympathized with her aunt because it was her ex-husband who put them both in that situation.
While she couldn’t understand why her aunt would choose him over her, she was still able to feel some empathy toward her aunt for being in the situation in general.
Ashlee Braxton’s Aunt’s Husband Remains Silent
That was a pretty hard pill to swallow, but there is something else that still hurts Ashlee to this day.
Even though her aunt eventually divorced him, her former uncle still has a platform.
He has a pretty strong following, too.
Despite having a strong platform, he’s never talked about the incident, even though he has the ability to do so.
Even worse, and this is the real tragedy, Ashlee said that her family still breaks bread with him.
They still treat him like family despite what he did to her.
That’s just salt in the wound at that point.
Ashlee Braxton Clarifies The Truth
In a follow-up TikTok, Ashlee clarified some things since she had gotten a lot of questions about her last video.
She wanted to make it clear that nothing physical had happened between her and her uncle.
It was just inappropriate texting.
She also wanted everyone to know that she wasn’t trying to hurt her family.
While she knew that the scandal would make everyone uncomfortable, she still had to tell her truth.
She also wanted to share her story because she saw just how big of a problem hiding family scandals was across the world.
She wanted to help other victims find the courage to share their stories, too.
Most importantly, she wanted to help others heal from their trauma.
Ashlee Braxton’s Healing Journey
Ashlee admitted that she was still healing herself, and part of that process was going to therapy and talking about everything.
She even felt the need to leave the United States for a while because she just needed a break from the toxicity.
She added that the decision to leave the country really came after her sister passed away.
So, she’s been living in Europe for the past few years.
That’s helped her heal, too, and just have the space needed to understand what had happened to her.
Ashlee added that as a 16-year-old, she shouldn’t have been put in that place to begin with.
The only one to blame was her uncle.
Which Uncle Sent Ashlee Braxton Inappropriate Messages?
But which uncle was the one who did it?
Fans have had a field day trying to figure out who it was.
A lot of people pointed fingers at her aunt Trina and her husband, Gabe.
There were certainly hints out there.
Ashlee mentioned that there were episodes from Braxton Family Values that featured this particular uncle.
Even the summer itself, where all this went down, was technically in the show, but it was obviously happening behind the scenes.
Fans said that Michael, Ashlee’s dad, should have kicked Gabe out of the family and put his house in order.
The fact that he didn’t protect his kids didn’t sit well with the fans.
They couldn’t understand how he could have just sat back and allowed the other family members to basically ignore Ashlee’s pain.
Keep in mind that we have no idea what really happened behind the scenes.
We don’t even know if Gabe was the one responsible.
Either way, fans have been really supportive of Ashlee, and those who have a similar trauma to hers have also shared their stories with her, either in the comments or with a direct message to her.
But what do you guys think?
Which aunt do you think is the one who is no longer talking to her?
And which uncle spoke to her inappropriately?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
