Tisha Campbell says she couldn’t “look backwards” during her struggles with bankruptcy.
In a new interview with the Breakfast Club, Campbell talked about the financial struggles she faced during her divorce from actor Duane Martin, whom she was married to from 1996 to 2020. The former couple also shares two sons—Xen Whaheed, 23, and Ezekiel Czar, 15.
“The story was I had $21 in my pocket and a knife cost $7 and I wanted to pay for the knife, but it was Christmas and I had a choice to try to get some extra toys for my kids at the Rite Aid or something,” Campbell said near the 13-minute mark in the video linked above.
When asked by co-host Loren LoRosa if closing the bankruptcy case recently helped her move on, Campbell said, “I think it's a lifetime of stuff and I don't really understand how we went through the bankruptcy, honestly. I was kind of separated from it, so I don't really know how we got through it, but it really is just taking yourself outside of it and keep it moving forward.”
“I got kids, man. I got two kids, one has ADHD, the other one got autism, two separate issues, and I just keep moving forward,” she added. “I can't look backwards. I can't. So I just don't.”
She also addressed the misconception that public figures are immune to hardship, saying, “I don't really pay attention to the crowd noise. I can't, I can't afford it. And the way that I look at life, it's like a football game. Like whoever's on the field running with me and got that ball with me or running the field with me, I'm good.”
She continued, “I don't pay attention to the cheerleaders, those are the fake friends. I don't pay attention to the crowd noise because they're there, that's their job to boo and to cheer. So I can't pay attention to any of it. I have to just block it out and keep moving forward.”
According to In Touch Weekly, Campbell and Martin initially filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January 2016. Their case was officially closed in July 2024.
