The 2004 'American Idol' poster girl, Fantasia Barrino, is not waiting until her "Baby Comes Home". The R&B/ soul/ gospel singer has reportedly surrendered her North Carolina home to the bank as she was neck-deep in mortgage trouble. Before the bank could foreclose on her, she handed the property over.
According to Dailymail, Barrino had paid $1.1 million for her mansion in 2007. In 2009, she narrowly missed the foreclosure bullet. Still struggling with the home's finances, she decided to put the home up for sale.
A feature in TMZ reported:
"The "Idol" winner was about to lose her $1.1 mil pad in North Carolina because of $ probs -- she owed $58,000 to Broward Energy Partners and the company had put the house on the auction block. She had borrowed the cash from the company to pay taxes."
In 2012, she listed the manse at a loss for $800,000. Even after the huge price-chopping, the home failed to sell.
Barrino's surrender is being called a "dignified move" by TMZ. By handing her mansion over to the bank, she saves herself a lot of "foreclosure-bidding-process" angst, time and negative publicity. But the downside is: she loses her mansion, almost immediately.
In better times, Barrino had invited MTV Cribs into her mansion and showed the folks around. According to photos at MTV Crib's flipbook, the home was luxurious. Dark hardwood floors and giant staircases in the entry gallery were just the start. However, she had stocked a room with a lot of "animal-stuff". Apparently, the stuff gave her an "Africa" feel where she had never been to but wanted to go.
Check out the flipbook, here.
Reports about her supposed diva antics, finances, label tension and her weight surfaced during her Broadway debut, "The Color Purple". In 2010, the wife of a man she was dating filed for divorce and blamed Barrino for destroying her marriage. Barrino attempted suicide, overdosing on sleeping pills in August that year, reports LA Times.
She has come a long way now. Though she has lost her home, she is geared up to release her new album and is also co-writing her first.
