Fantasia Calls Her Mom Her ‘Idol’ for Guiding Their Family Through ‘Tough’ Times

Fantasia and Her Mother Diane Barrino on TV One’s Raising Fame. (Credit: TV One)

Singer and actress Fantasia Barrino credits her success to an upbringing rooted in faith.

On the next episode of TV One’s Raising Fame, Fantasia says her mom Diane Barrino-Barber is the reason she became the accomplished woman she is today.

In a teaser, the Grammy-winning singer looks at her mother and says, “That’s my idol.”

“I’ve seen my mother go through some tough stuff, but still do it with class, elegance, and also faith. That word faith, I know what it is because of my mother. She trusted God,” she continues.

RelatedLeToya Luckett Tells TV One: ‘I Had to Sleep in My Car’ After Destiny’s Child

In another clip, Barrino-Barber shares some of the struggles she faced while raising Fantasia and her siblings. “We didn’t have a lot of money. It was always from job to job and paycheck to paycheck,” she states.

Despite these struggles, Fantasia says she never noticed they were going without.

“When we didn’t have nothing to eat, I couldn’t tell,” she explains. “Grits and a little bacon, grits and eggs… Salute to her because the way she cooked it up and set it down on the table, you would’ve thought we was at a five-star restaurant.”

The teaser clips hint that Fantasia will also reflect on members of her local community turning their backs on her when she got pregnant at 16, yet her grandmother was always supportive.

Fantasia, 40, was born in High Point, North Carolina. Since winning American Idol in 2004, she has been nominated for 12 Grammy Awards and won one in 2010 for best female R&B vocal performance for “Bittersweet.”

Most recently, she picked up an NAACP Image Award for outstanding actress in a motion picture for her performance as Celie in The Color Purple remake.

Raising Fame is co-hosted by Sonya Curry and Lucille O’Neal, the mothers of basketball greats Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal.

The series offers viewers a deeper understanding of the dedication, sacrifice, and love that contributed to the success of superstars in their rise to fame.

This season will also feature the families of music artists Usher, John Legend, and Jon Batiste, as well as basketball player Kevin Durant, and late actor Chadwick Boseman.

The series is created by TCS Media. Executive producers include Tracy Chutorian Semler and Eric Semler. Allison Simmons is the executive producer in charge of production for TV One.

Raising Fame: Fantasia Barrino airs Sunday, Aug. 4, at 10 p.m./9c on TV One.

Watch the trailer below: