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Toni Braxton and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds’ forthcoming  joint album may be called “Love, Marriage & Divorce” but the duo didn’t just pull from their own experiences to capture that relationship roller coaster.

One of the albums’ gut-wrenching tracks, “I Wish,” was inspired by the wise-cracking words of Toni’s mom, Evelyn Jackson, who audiences have come to know and love through WEtv’s reality show “Braxton Family Values,” and her feelings for her ex-husband — and Toni’s dad — Michael.

“The song…’I Wish,’ I wrote for my mom when she and my dad had a divorce,” said Toni. “She was like, ‘I hope he dies; I hope he catches a disease! I don’t really want him to die, but I hope he catches a disease and almost dies!”  It was a line that Babyface had never heard before — especially not in a song — so when Toni brought him the song she’d written, centered around what he thought was a “sad-but-funny” phrase, he was sold.

The lyrics the Grammy-Award winning singer ended up with:

I wish, I wish, I wish she’d break your heart

like you did me/I hope you’re unhappy

I pray, I pray, I pray she gives you a disease

so that you will see/Not enough to make you die 

only to make you cry, like you did me

Cold! But at least Mama Evelyn’s musings make for a hot ballad. Watch Toni and Babyface tell the full story and hear a preview of the song above!

Click here to order the new album “Love, Marriage & Divorce” on iTunes, due for release February 04, 2014.  And don’t miss an exclusive special with these two icons  on TV One, February 8, 2014 at 10p ET/9p CT. 

Toni Braxton Reveals The Heartbreaking Story Behind New Song ‘I Wish’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com