Fantasia Barrino is taking time off from the entertainment industry to go back to school.
The Truth Is singer made the announcement on Instagram Live, noting that she has chosen to do so after dropping out of school when she was younger.
“I went back to school. Shout out to my soror Yvonne. She’s back in school, I’m back in school, we push each other, motivate each other,” she said.
The 38-year-old first decided to put education first when she received her GED in 2009 and would soon become an honorary graduate at the North Carolina school where she received the certificate a year later. More recently, she was inducted as an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho in 2022.
“Y’all have no idea how long I been waiting to share this news!!” she wrote on Instagram at the time she was inducted. “I’ve officially been inducted as an Honorary #SigmaGammaRho 💙🐩💛. #D9 #sorority #prettypoodle THANK YOU… I am overjoyed.”
The mother of three dropped out of school at the age of 14 and got pregnant with her first child three years later. Her daughter Zion Quari Barrino, she said, was the motivation that pushed her to go back to school.
“I’ve been talking about it for so long,” the Lose to Win star said. “I have a lot of young people who look up to me, like my 15-year-old brother and 7-year-old daughter. It’s something that I really need to do and that I want to do.”
In addition to Zion, she is the mother to Dallas, 12, and Keziah, 2, who she shares with her husband Kendall Taylor.
Fantasia rose to stardom after her sultry Nina Simone-like voice stole the show during the third season of the hit reality television series American Idol in 2004. She would end up winning the singing competition and went on to release her debut single, I Believe, which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Her debut album, Free Yourself, went certified Platinum by the RIAA and earned the star three Grammy nominations in 2006.
