Fantasia Barrino Almost Quit Over Internet Hate Campaign  7/23/06

American Idol star Fantasia Barrino almost quit the TV talent contest after friends and family revealed all about internet hate campaigns in phone calls.

The singer and her fellow Idol contestants were forbidden to surf the Internet while they were on the show, but that didn't stop family and friends from checking the latest gossip and hate campaigns in cyberspace.

Single mum Barrino recalls, "People from home could go on the internet, and they would call and say, 'Listen, let me tell you what they are saying. You know, they are saying that you are not good for kids, and you are not a good role model, and how could you be this, and how could you be that?'

"I could have given up then. I could have been, like, 'Man, that's it.' I would tell my mom, 'Mama, I'm not going to win this. They won't give me a chance. They won't see that I'm trying to better myself.'

"But I said, 'Do you know what? I'm going to tough it out. I'm going to fight it to the end. I'm going to take it as far as I can take it.'"