American Idol star Fantasia Barrino has opened up about the suicide attempt that almost ended her life — on the day her new album Back To Me was released. In an emotional interview on the TV show Good Morning America, the 26-year-old talked about the events leading up to her overdose earlier this month.

“I think I was just overloaded with everything, with carrying six years of so much,” she said. “I always take a licking and keep on ticking… it just became heavy for me to the point that I just wanted to be away from the noise.”

Barrino took an overdose of aspirin and sleeping aids on August 9, and was found in her closet by agent Brian Dickens. She says that when she found herself in hospital, she knew she couldn’t keep her problems a secret any more. She said: “When I woke up, I figured, Oh God, this is going to be more drama. I know all these nurses, they know me, they probably voted for me.” At the time of her overdose, Barrino was facing a lawsuit from Paula Cook, the wife of her married boyfriend Antwaun Cook, but Barrino insists Paula’s accusations were not the sole factor contributing to her breakdown. “I think everybody feels like I tried to harm myself over a man, but you know, I’ve been in a lot of bad relationships, I think it was just six years of everything, of me holding all that stuff inside and not letting it out. I got very, very tired.”

Barrino also claims the loss of her career and management also added to her depression. “There’s so much that people don’t understand. They just see the glitz and the glamour, and they feel like life is so perfect, but we’re human and we go through things,” she said.

–Daily Mail

Tiger Woods’ ex-wife went “through hell”, admits to hair loss

Tiger Woods’ ex-wife Elin Nordegren says she has “been through hell” since learning of her husband’s infidelity, but insists she never hit him.

In an interview with People magazine, Nordegren says she and Woods tried for months to reconcile the relationship. In the end, she says a marriage “without trust or love” wasn’t good for anyone. On Thanksgiving night, Woods drove his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree, setting off shocking revelations that sports’ biggest star had been cheating on his wife through multiple affairs.

Nordegren tells the magazine that she never hit Woods, calling speculation that she hit him with a golf club “truly ridiculous”. She appears on the cover of this week’s issue, just two days after the couple officially divorced.

–AP

Lindsay Lohan Released From Rehab

A source familiar with Lindsay Lohan’s criminal case says the actress has been released from rehab. The source, who is familiar with the case but not authorised to speak publicly due to the sensitivity of her treatment, says Lohan will now enter a rigorous outpatient rehab programme.

The actress’s release on Tuesday came after she spent 23 days of a three-month sentence in a rehab programme at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre. She entered that facility early on August 2 after spending 14 days of a three-month sentence in jail for violating her probation in a 2007 drug case. A prosecutor and Lohan’s defence attorney will discuss the next steps in the Mean Girls star’s case at a court hearing in Beverly Hills.

–AP