Fantasia Barrino was a 19-year-old single mother from North Carolina when she won the third season of “American Idol” in 2004.
Many “Idol” fans supported her because her life seemed so hard, and Barrino has always managed to defy the odds in her career after “Idol.” Since “Idol,” Barrino has had a lot of success, including the memoir that became the Lifetime movie “Life Is Not a Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story,” a starring role in “The Color Purple” on Broadway, several successful albums and a Grammy win.
All About The Tragic Life Of Fantasia Barrino
But Barrino’s personal problems have also seen her through her career. Her willingness to keep going even when things got tough helped her on “Idol,” and that same strength helped her continue her career even after a suicide attempt and the death of a family member.
Read on to learn more about Fantasia Barrino’s tough life, from her difficult childhood to her time in the spotlight and the pressure of being famous.
Fantasia Barrino’s painful 2005 memoir, “Life Is Not a Fairy Tale,” recounts how she faced tragedy at a young age. Barrino recounted how a popular boy raped her at her high school.
She wrote about the assault, which occurred when she was in ninth grade, “I can barely remember the details.” “All I know is that I get sick thinking about how that one act changed me in a way I didn’t need.”
Barrino eventually told her mother what happened, and her mother helped her inform her school about the crime. “He ended up getting in trouble, but not as much trouble as he deserved for taking away what little innocence I had left,” she wrote.
Barrino told “O, The Oprah Magazine” in 2007 that it was harder for her to go to school after she told police about the boy. “We turned the guy in, but going back to school was hell because his friends told her, ‘I’m going to do to you exactly what he did,'” she said. “They thought it was amusing. That’s when I stopped going to school.”
Fantasia Barrino has long been unable to read or write.
The Singer Was Beaten Up By Her Husband
Fantasia Barrino, then 17, had her daughter Zion three years after she left high school and moved into her own apartment. Barrino told “O, The Oprah Magazine” in 2007 about her struggles during that time, “When I moved out, started hanging out with the wrong people and got pregnant, people said, ‘She’s not going anywhere now.'” “I had gone crazy.”
Barrino’s problems worsened when she said her then-boyfriend and Zion’s father, Brandel Shouse, beat her up. Shouse was later arrested and charged for the violence he allegedly inflicted on Barrino.
In 2007, she told To The Source “I don’t talk about it much, but the relationship I was in was very abusive.” According to the news source, court documents state that Shouse “choked her with both hands” and “hit her in the face and head.”
“I looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘Look at me. One of my eyes doesn’t work. My head is full of lumps. “My lips swelled up,” Barrino reflected back. “And one day my little brother came up to me and said, ‘Oh, you look bad.'”
She Was Hospitalized After An Overdose
In court documents, Fantasia Barrino is accused of destroying the marriage of her alleged boyfriend, Antwaun Cook. In August 2010, Barrino’s manager, Brian Dickens, found the star nearly unconscious at her mansion in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The singer was taken to the hospital, after taking “an overdose of aspirin and a sleeping pill.” He further wrote, “Her wounds are not bad enough to kill her. At this point, she was thirsty and tired.”
In 2010, Barrino told VH1’s “Behind the Music” program (via People) that she took the potentially lethal dose of medication because she “just wanted out.
She said, “I just sat in the closet, looked in the mirror and took every pill in the bottle.” “I just wanted to go to sleep and feel calm. I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do.
Tragically, Fantasia Barrino’s Nephew Was Killed
In 2018, Fantasia Barrino’s 18-year-old nephew Tyquan Vonricco Washington was killed in a shooting in North Carolina. This was another sad event in her life. His obituary talked about how good Washington was at gymnastics and how much he loved football,
singing, and dancing. Barrino wrote, “Auntie is so sorry, baby… RIP to my oldest nephew” in an Instagram post that has since been deleted The singer also prayed for Washington’s father, Ricco Barrino, who is her brother.
In a touching Instagram post, Washington’s father paid his own tribute to his dead son, writing, “I wanted to be there for you every day, and there wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t wonder where you were. Well, you grew up today when you put on wings and did something I haven’t done yet.”
After the shooting, David Lee White Jr., age 21, was charged with killing Barrino’s nephew in the first degree and robbing him with a dangerous weapon.
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