Fantasia Barrino - Personal Life

Personal Life

In September 2005, Barrino published a memoir, dictated to a freelance writer, titled Life Is Not a Fairy Tale. The book became a New York Times best-seller, reaching number seven on the list. In it, she revealed she is functionally illiterate and was unable to read the text of contracts she signed or to read to her then four-year-old daughter. In 2006, following the release of her autobiography, Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, Barrino's father sued her for $10 million after she said unflattering things about him in the book that he claimed were false.

On December 9, 2008, Barrino's 6,600-square-foot (610 m2), lakefront home in Charlotte's Glynmoor Lakes at Piper Glen community was in foreclosure and would be up for auction. Her 4,500-square-foot (420 m2) home, also in Piper Glen, is unaffected. The home was due to be auctioned in January 2009 by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office after the company Broward Energy Partners, which had paid over $68,000 of her taxes in 2006, said it had not been fully repaid. The auction earnings were to be used to finish reimbursing the company for the loan, on which Barrino had only paid back $10,000. The auction was canceled after Barrino's attorneys and the lender reach an "eleventh-hour deal", the details of which were not disclosed.

Her uncles, The Barrino Brothers, were a 1970s R&B band and her brother is Grand Hustle recording artist Ricco Barrino.

An August 2010 divorce filing in Mecklenburg County District Court alleges that Barrino has had a year-long relationship with Antwaun Cook, who was married. Barrino claimed the two began dating after Cook and his wife separated.

On August 9, 2010, Barrino was hospitalized in Pineville, North Carolina, due to overdosing on aspirin and an unknown sleep aid. Dickens said, "'Her injuries are not life threatening … she was dehydrated and exhausted at the time." The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department classified the incident as a suicide attempt. In transcript segments released the day before an August 24, 2010, interview on the VH1 series Behind the Music, Barrino confirmed the incident was a suicide attempt, saying, "I didn't care about anything. I just wanted out. At that moment I wanted out. I wanted it to be over with...." Barrino denied rumors that the incident was a publicity stunt.

Afterward, Barrino said, "Music saved me. When I went in the hospital, I went into the computer room, and I looked up artists who've been through things, artists who sing from their soul. I took my cues from them, and I just put my mind and everything into music." She also relied on her family, something she had not done earlier in her career. Barrino testified in court that she aborted her and Cook's fetus around the time of her failed suicide attempt.

In late August 2010, the ex-wife of Antwuan Cook, Paula Cook, accused Barrino of knowingly pursuing a relationship with her husband despite knowledge of their existing marriage. In December 2010, a North Carolina judge ruled in Barrino's favor stating the Cooks' separation date was September 14, 2009, and not June 2010 as Paula previously claimed. No information was given yet as to how the decision of the court will affect Paula's original plan to sue Fantasia under North Carolina's Alienation of affections Law which allows the abandoned spouse to file a suit against the individual(s) responsible for the failure of the marriage.

On August 1, 2011, Barrino announced a second pregnancy during a charity concert event in Jacksonville, Florida. She did not reveal the name of the father. On September 13, 2011 it was confirmed that the singer would be having a boy. On December 13, 2011 she gave birth to a son, Dallas Xavier Barrino by Antwaun Cook.