Tisha Campbell opens up about struggles following divorce and bankruptcy: ‘I had $21 in my pocket’

Tisha Campbell is “good” now, although she recalls a time when she could barely afford Christmas presents for her children. 

During a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” which arrived a year after she and her ex-husband finally closed out their bankruptcy case, the 56-year-old actress and mother of two shared more insight into her recent financial trouble stemming from her divorce. 

When asked by host Charlamagne tha God about a situation in which she had very little cash in her pocket post-divorce and amid bankruptcy, Campbell said, “The story was I had $21 in my pocket and a knife cost $7 and I wanted to pay for the knife. 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, who was married to actor Duane Martin from 1996 to 2020 and shares two sons, Xen Whaheed, 23, and Ezekiel Czar, 15, with him, recently closed out a bankruptcy case with Martin in July 2024 that began in 2016. 

“I think it’s a lifetime of stuff and I don’t really understand how we went through the bankruptcy, honestly,” she said, when asked if closing the bankruptcy allowed her to move on. “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 continued. “I can’t look backwards. I can’t. So I just don’t.”

In 2018, after over two decades together, Campbell filed for divorce from Martin.

“After 27 years of being together and two amazing children, it pains me to announce that I’ve filed for divorce,” she said at the time, per People magazine. 

In 2020, when the divorce was finalized, she dropped Martin from her name and returned to just Campbell. 

While on “The Breakfast Club,” DJ Envy noted that there can be a misconception about successful, booked, and busy actresses like her that they rarely experience hardship, if at all. 

“I don’t really pay attention to the crowd noise,” she explained. “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 added, “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.”