Fantasia Barrino’s Recent Overdose Intentional
“People” magazine reports “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino’s recent overdose on aspirin and sleeping pills was a suicide attempt. Barrino, 26, confirmed this in a recent interview with the magazine and stated she knew exactly what she was doing.
Years of battling depression and a complicated relationship with Antwaun Cook led to Barrino’s desperate attempt for peace. In a recent radio interview with host Gayle King, Barrino recalled her days on “American Idol,” a home foreclosure, throat tumor, business troubles involving family and mismanaged money:
“When I was on Idol … they weren’t really looking at my gift…”[Producers] were focusing on all the bad things I had done before I made it there. I have feelings, you know. I’m human.
“…There were people coming after me who had already done me wrong.
“…[After] putting out my Lifetime movie and my book [Life Is Not a Fairy Tale], [people] picked certain things in the book, [saying], ‘She’s illiterate, she’s dumb…[And] I had to sit and hear comedians crack their jokes,” she said, “and certain people say what they had to say.”
Barrino found comfort in the words of her nurse while she was hospitalized after her attempt to take her life. She told “People”:
“My nurse Melanie was a blessing into my life because she didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear. She told me what I needed to hear. And she looked at me and said, ‘You gotta get up, and you’ve gotta get out of here, ’cause you haven’t fulfilled your destiny.’
“I realized how people end up in the grave. Because that one moment [snaps her fingers] of just breaking or feeling like I can’t, I can’t go on, it’s too heavy. That was somewhere I don’t ever want to go again.”
Learn about recognizing the signs of suicide.
If you need to talk to someone about yourself or someone you know, call the24-hour National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK. This is a free call.
[photo: Jyle Dupuis on Wikimedia Commons]
Tags: american idol, fantasia barrino, suicide, suicide signs
