Reality TV may be Toni Braxton’s last hope.
The cash-strapped singer – a chart topper in the mid-’90s, with hits like “Breathe Again” and “Un-Break My Heart” – is battling Lupus and has been unable to secure steady work.
But Braxton, who stars in the new We series “Braxton Family Values” hasn’t given up her diva lifestyle.
In October, she filed bankruptcy for a second time, listing between $10 million and $50 million in debt.
“The poor girl hasn’t done well lately,” her former manager, Arnold Stiefel, tells The Post. “I only want it to work out for her. She hasn’t had a hit record in a while.”
A year-long engagement at The Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in 2008 left many seats unsold, according to one local promoter. “Donny and Marie [Osmond], who followed her, drew much better,” he says.
Last September, the Grammy winner’s 5,300-square-foot mansion in Henderson, Nev., went into foreclosure.
And weeks later, on her 43rd birthday, she filed for bankruptcy, listing Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co. and BMW among her creditors.
“I had to cancel all of my shows after my illness,” she tells The Post. “I hadn’t worked in two and a half years.”
Now, the divorced mother of two (whose youngest son suffers from autism) said she may accept an offer to pose for Playboy — a gig that often pays more that $100,000.
“Reality shows don’t pay that much money,” she adds.
The series, which premieres April 12, centers around the drama between Toni and her four sisters — who all aspired to become professional singers, too, but never got there.
“My sister Towanda has become my personal assistant recently,” Braxton says. “She hates it.”
Tamar, who is married to Braxton’s manager, and Trina, a more-than-social drinker, are Braxton’s backup singers.
“They fuss and they fight, but, at the end of the day, they come back together because they are each other’s best friend,” says Toni’s mother, Evelyn.
“I think they may somewhat envy [Toni], because she has reached that star.”
But will exposing her private life get her back on the show-biz radar?
“Reality TV can remind people you are there,” celebrity publicist Howard Bragman says. “The buzz can far transcend the number of people who actually watch.
“The worst-case scenario is, if she is something less than appealing on TV, then it can really backfire.
“The Post incorrectly attributed a quote to Toni Braxton in this article published on March 25. Braxton did not say: “I have a big ass house, three cars, and I fly first class all around the world. Some say I have the perfect life.”