Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Why I believe my husband James Brown was murdered
claims that her marriage to Brown was invalid. A judge ruled last year that the union was legal. But nine of Brown’s heirs are still pursuing a claim that Tomi Rae “embarked on a series of duplicitous business machinations calculated to deprive Brown’s children of their rightful interests in Brown’s music under the Copyright Act”.
Tomi Rae says she feels “betrayed” after years of caring for Brown.
She says: “I would rub his legs down eight hours a day. Curl his hair before a show, then curl it after. He was hard work. I held this man when he had cancer, for 10 years I put up with some heavy duty, not so fun hard stuff, helping his children when he told me not to. Then they betrayed me – and their little brother. I was ‘Mama Rae’ to them, but I’d no idea how much they hated me.” Tomi Rae tells how tragic superstar Michael Jackson came to her aid – giving her £8,000 when she was penniless. She reveals: “Michael was so nice to me. He was a sweetheart. He said ‘I’m so sorry what they are doing to you.’
“He sent me money after James died. It saved me, it got me an apartment, it enabled us to live.”
LOANS
Tomi Rae now gets loans from investors, pending an eventual payout. She desperately wants the family infighting to end and hopes to make
Something happened that they did not want me to know about... truth will come out
TOMI RAE BROWN WIDOW ON MYSTERY OVER STAR’S DEATH
peace with her in-laws. She goes on: “Just let this end. I can’t do it any more. I’m tired. They keep coming, they are rabid and I don’t know why. I have never fought for anything except to be my husband’s wife.
“I just want to bury him, get him off his current resting place – last place he wants to be. I hold out an olive branch and I forgive them. I know how hard it was to be a family member of James.”
Now Tomi Rae has poured her heart into her first solo album since Brown’s death. Called Treacle, it includes a collaboration with the late star.
She says: “This is my way of saying goodbye to James. It’s a thank-you and a goodbye. It has been very cathartic.”
Her new fiancé Pete Wassif, who she met in 2016, is a guitarist in The Tomirae Brown Band. James Brown The Second, 18, is a budding rapper at music college.
Tomi Rae says: “Me and my son are really tight. It’s been me and him against the world. Everything from the court case to having to endure his father’s legs getting cut off.
“That’s the lowest thing I have ever seen anybody do. It was inhuman.”
Tomi Rae plans to open a James Brown Foundation in London.
And she adds: “I’m proud and honoured to be his wife.”
The Tomirae Brown Band’s debut album Treacle is out now.