Barrino: 'I Did Not Harm Myself Over A Man'

The former American Idol star survived a drug overdose earlier this month (Aug10) and later shocked fans by declaring the scare wasn't an accident, insisting, "I knew exactly what I was doing."

Barrino's suicide attempt is rumoured to have been fuelled by her troubled love life, which saw her caught up in divorce proceedings between North Carolina couple Antwaun Cook and his estranged wife Paula.

On Tuesday, the singer appeared on U.S. breakfast programme Good Morning America for her first live TV interview since the incident, assuring fans she is doing "better" despite her personal woes.

But Barrino is adamant it was the mounting pressures of fame - not Paula Cook's accusations the singer had an affair with her husband - that drove her over the edge.

She explains: "There's just so many things that I had to deal with - me almost losing my whole career, not having management, and lawyers and everybody who said they had my back, nobody taking care of me, me taking care of my whole family. (There is) so much that people don't understand, they just see the glitz and the glamour and they feel like life is so perfect (for me). But we (celebrities) are human and we go through things...

"I think everybody feels like I tried to harm myself over a man. But I've been through a lot of bad relationships. That had something to do with it because it was so heavy, it was brand new information. I was already going through so much but I think it was just six years of everything, of me holding everything on the inside and not letting it out. I just got very, very tired."

Barrino has admitted dating Cook "off and on for 11 months" but is adamant she thought he was single.

The singer insists she is now putting the past behind her - she's seeing a life coach and is eager to go back to work.

She adds: "There are people who love and support me and just want to see me keep going and who've been through the same thing... and I said, 'You know what, there's no perfect person'. I'm just thankful for all the doctors who were there for me because they didn't treat me like Fantasia, they treated me like 'Tasia, and I needed that."