If you believe that every celebrity has chefs, chauffeurs, private trainers and all of the other trappings often associated with stardom, singer/actress and America Idol winner Fantasia Barrino wants you to know you’re wrong.

Earlier this week, while visiting The Tammi Mac Show in L.A. following the BET Awards, the 34-year-old was asked to spill the tea about how she got into such great shape. She said she works out and eats well, which isn’t easy.

It’s often assumed that celebrities have trainers, chefs and other staffers assisting them with the more mundane talks of life, but Fantasia says she learned early on to be frugal with her earnings. She says you can’t always assume celebrities have the kind of money people think they do.

“I’m just now building myself back up,” Fantasia says. “I lost everything twice. So, I cook my own food. I don’t need no chef, I’m from North Carolina, my grandma and my mama taught me how to cook. I don’t have a chef. I go get my own groceries. I don’t have a driver, I drive my own car. That’s fake. I don’t want that life or else I quit. I don’t want it.

You’ve got to pay the trainers, but sometimes I get people to come in and just say, “Yo, we just want to work with you. Post me.” I’m like cool, but I also tell them, too, God gave you gifts and talent and you can’t always give it for free. So I bless them for blessing me.”

These days, the money Fantasia does have coming in isn’t doled out by a label boss or anyone else in control of her artistry. She is releasing her upcoming album, Enough, on her own, and said she’s finally at a place where “nobody can prostitute the gift anymore.”

Tyler Perry’s BET speech about ownership resonated with many. Fortunately for Fantasia, she can personally call on him for advice as the two are friends.

He would call and check up on me,” she said. “He was one of the ones, when I lost everything, he came and blessed me. And I thank him for that. You look around and you could be working for 10 years, you’ve got all these people on your team, you’re paying this person, that person, and you look up, and you don’t have no money in the bank because you’ve given it to everybody else. That’s what I said about prostituting your gift. You have a gift and you’re allowing everybody else to profit off of the gift. So I love what he said.”

Fantasia recently teased a collaboration with singers Jazmine Sullivan and Brandy which is set to be on her new album coming out soon.

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