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Toni Braxton is a firm believer in love then, now and forevermore.
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE ahead of the release of her latest Lifetime film, He Wasn’t Man Enough, the Grammy winner, 58, opened up about not putting a time limit on when great things can happen.
“I’m a hopeless romantic,” she says. “I’m always looking for love. And I found out 1763767019 that I’m older, that romance is never over. It’s ageless. We always think it’s such a young person thing. And I’ve learned that it’s not, it’s at any age. You can find romance or love or partnership, anything like that.”
Courtesy of Lifetime
In the movie, Braxton stars as bestselling author Mel Montgomery, whose world unravels when she learns that her younger boyfriend Richard (Thomas Cadrot) hasn’t exactly been truthful.
Courtesy of Lifetime
With the help of her estranged college friend Monica (Essence Atkins) and loyal best friend Candy (Yvette Nicole Brown), Mel is able to get her life back on track following the brutal break-up.
In real life, Braxton doesn’t have those problems. She recently celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary with Birdman (whose real name is Bryan Christopher Williams) in August 2025.
The couple started dating in 2016, and she later told PEOPLE in 2018 that she never expected her friendship with her “bestie for like 15 or 16 years” would turn into something more.
In the forthcoming Lifetime movie, there’s a fun nod to the Louisiana rap mogul’s roots, when Mel, Candy and Monica tap into what Braxton calls their “Sisters Before Misters” mindset and begin dancing to Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up” during a spa day. The song is one of many late 90s hits from Birdman’s Cash Money Records label.
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Explaining the moment, Braxton tells PEOPLE that the tune is something the ladies would have actually enjoyed as “college friends.”
“That was the song that we would’ve been listening to,” she says.
As for her own music, He Wasn’t Man Enough is based on Braxton’s 2000 song of the same title, where, in the music video, the superstar assures her ex-boyfriend’s (Keri Lewis) new love (Robin Givens) that she doesn’t need to worry about Braxton ever trying to get him back.
The “Un-Break My Heart” singer tells PEOPLE she initially wanted Givens to appear in the film, but it didn’t work out. In all there’s a positive takeaway from both the song and movie’s message.
Courtesy of Lifetime
“It always works out. Sometimes you’re mad about things today and then tomorrow you’re like, ‘Why did I take it all so seriously?’” she adds of how to move on when things don’t go as planned. “Try to be happy, try to love, love is so important.”
Braxton says she’s learned that and more from her close-knit family. “I come from a sisterhood, a sistership. I’m one of five, we lost one [Traci Braxton]. But still she’s with us. And so that matters. Sometimes a situation can come and break that up or make your family situation, your sisterhood stress,” the “Another Sad Song” singer says.
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“Sometimes you get it right girls, sometimes you don’t, but you gotta keep living,” Braxton tells PEOPLE.
Toni Braxton’s He Wasn’t Man Enough premieres Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8/7c as part of the network’s Love of a Lifetime November romance movie slate.
