Motivational speaker and entrepreneur Tabitha Brown shared with the world that had she achieved her mammoth success when she was younger, she might have left her marriage.
During her podcast “Friday with Tab and Chance” with her husband and co-host Chance Brown, where the topic was temptations, she got honest about staying in her union because she simply could not afford to be single again, joining a third of women in relationships for financial survival.
Being Broke Kept Them Together
About half into the interview, Chance broached the subject for his viewers, ‘What would have happened if they… got their money when they was 23. If they had their success when they was 24.”
She answered promptly, “We wouldn’t be sitting at this table. We wouldn’t be sitting here, my son wouldn’t have been born, and I don’t think we would have made it.”
“I think if success, had it came that early, the temptation for me would have been I’m more tempted to leave because I know I can survive on my own,” she later stated. “There were times that we stayed together because we couldn’t survive without each other. This is the truth. It wasn’t love. … It was like, ‘Dang! I ain’t I can’t afford to leave. We have to work it out.’”
“Throughout that time we just fell back in love,” she added. “There were times when we absolutely were not in love with each other.”
The TikTok vegan influencer, who now has an estimated net worth between $4 million and $10 million, is not the only person that stayed in a marriage because she believed she would not survive alone. It is a reality many face but rarely discuss.
The Browns Aren’t Alone
A Glamour survey found that one in three women have stayed in a relationship because they didn’t have the financial means to leave. This sentiment is echoed by a study from IllicitEncounters.com, which also concluded that a third of people stay married for financial reasons.
Some 18 percent of the people surveyed in the same Illicit Encounters study stated that divorce is “totally out of the question” regardless of how unhappy they are in the marriage, because of “financial constraints,” according to Newsweek.
Additionally, a 2021 YouGov poll revealed that 35 percent of women are somewhat or completely financially dependent on their partner, compared to just 11 percent of men.
The financial disparity following a divorce gets more dismal the older a woman is.
A Forbes study highlighted that women experience a 45 percent decline in their living standards after a divorce if they are 50 years or older, while men face only a 21 percent decline.
This financial burden often falls heavier on women due to the gender wage gap and the likelihood of women compromising their careers to support their partner’s ambitions or to manage homemaking responsibilities.
Building Together
Fortunately, Tabitha and Chance worked through the challenges in their marriage, even during times when they felt alienated from one another and were not speaking while living in the same house.
Today, the couple enjoys the fruits of their labor, having built an empire that includes books, talk shows, podcasts, and more. Tabitha has a collaboration with Target, which began after her cooking videos went viral. Her latest lifestyle collection, launched on July 21, features a vibrant array of cookware and kitchenware that has been flying off the shelves.
Their journey from financial struggles to success is a testament to perseverance and just how far they have come in their relationship.
Chance said in an interview with People, reflecting on their early financial struggles, “We only had that account because it was starting to be a part of life where you had to, but our real savings were in a Nike shoe box.”
Tabitha added, “So it’s always been our money together. And now we have multiple accounts.”
From humble beginnings to a flourishing empire, Tabitha and Chance Brown’s story is a powerful reminder that success can indeed lead to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, even if the early days were filled with storms. The lesson: weathering it out is key.
