Tabitha Brown opens up about health setback after hip replacement: ‘The delay is intentional’

The actress and entrepreneur turned an unexpected health setback into a message about patience, faith and life’s delays.

Tabitha Brown says a ruptured spinal disc has delayed her recovery from hip replacement surgery, disrupting plans to return to work in November. Brown discussed a slipped disc with TheGrio in 2024 and has shared faith-based messages with followers before.

In an Instagram video, Brown said she underwent hip replacement surgery on September 15 after previously having surgery to repair her labrum. She expected this recovery to be easier and scheduled the procedure with the hope of resuming work by November 1.

But about two weeks after the replacement, she said, a bulging disc in her lower spine, which she attributed to an earlier car accident, ruptured. She said the rupture delayed her recovery and that she was walking with a cane.

Brown said she had been reassured by people who had undergone hip replacements, including her doctor, that rehabilitation would be less difficult than her earlier labrum surgery. Instead, the unexpected setback forced her to reconsider the timetable she had laid out.

She connected the delay to another unfinished project in her life: a kitchen remodel. Brown had expected the renovation to be complete before her surgery, but construction had also fallen behind schedule.

Standing in her unfinished kitchen, she described what she believed was a message from God. Just as she had chosen new materials to improve a kitchen that was already beautiful, she said, God was working on changes in her own life.

“Nothing was wrong with you, but I’m doing a remodel,” she recalled hearing. She said the experience reminded her that she could make plans without controlling when those plans would unfold.

Brown turned that reflection into encouragement for people dealing with delays in their health, jobs or relationships. “Baby, the delay is intentional,” she told viewers, describing difficult periods as times when lives are still “under construction.”

Although she acknowledged needing a cane for now, Tabitha Brown remained hopeful about what comes next. She ended the video by saying she believed the changes ahead would be greater than what she had accomplished before.