American Idol alum Mandisa's cause of death has been revealed.

ADVERTISEMENT

Mandisa was found dead in her Nashville home on April 18, but no further details were released at the time.

According to an autopsy report, the Grammy winner died of complications of class III obesity and it was a natural death, People reported.

The report stated that Mandisa was found dead in her home by friends and she "was last known alive approximately three weeks" earlier.

Class III obesity is "severe" obesity in which a person has a body mass index of 40 or greater. A person with this condition is typically 80 to 100 pounds over what is considered one's ideal body weight, according to WebMD.

When Mandisa's death first made headlines in late April, a statement on her official Facebook account read, "Mandisa was a voice of encouragement and truth to people facing life's challenges all around the world."

"She wrote this song for a dear friend who had passed away in 2017," the statement continued. "Her own words say it best. 'I'm already home, you've got to lay it down because Jesus holds me now -- And I am not alone.'"

Mandisa's passing was also mentioned on the California radio station K-Love, Us Weekly reported.

"Mandisa loved Jesus, and she used her unusually extensive platform to talk about Him at every turn," David Pierce, the Chief Media Officer for K-Love, said on April 19.

"Her kindness was epic, her smile electric, her voice massive, but it was no match for the size of her heart."

David continued, "Mandisa struggled, and she was vulnerable enough to share that with us, which helped us talk about our own struggles. Mandisa's struggles are over. She is with the God she sang about now. While we are saddened, Mandisa is home. We're praying for Mandisa's family and friends and ask you to join us."

American Idol later honored Mandisa's life with a beautiful musical tribute.

The show's host, Ryan Seacrest, had called the late singer "a dear member of the Idol family" as well as "an inspiration on the show and beyond."

"Our hearts go out to her family and all of those, like us, who called her a friend," Ryan added at the time.

And former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson wrote on X, "Broke my heart when I heard the news! She was truly a woman of faith. A bright light that made such a powerful imprint on this world. Rest in heaven, Mandisa!"

Mandisa previously revealed in 2017 on Good Morning America that she had battled demons and her friends attempted to help her.

"I came out of the movie theater, this was after years of me being in that dark place and ignoring everybody, and I noticed that my car had a bunch of sticky notes all over it," the singer said at the time.

"As I got closer to it, I realized that those notes said things like, 'We love you. Come back to us. We miss you.' And then as I got closer to my car, a group of my friends, who I had shut out, they were there."

Mandisa added, "And they had been waiting at that movie theater as I sat there and watched two movies, not just one, they waited there for over four hours for me. And they pretty much had an intervention and they said, 'We love you just as you are but we love you too much to leave you that way.'"

Mandisa competed on American Idol's fifth season when the show had aired on Fox in 2006. She was a 29-year-old from Antioch, TN, at the time of her audition, and she was formally known as Mandisa Hundley.

Mandisa finished in the Top 10 during her season, but she faced a lot of scrutiny. Mandisa was once told her song choice was "horrible," and former American Idol judge Simon Cowell criticized her weight and later apologized for body-shaming her.

One year after her elimination, Mandisa dropped her debut album, "True Beauty" in 2007.

Mandisa released a total of five studio Contemporary-Christian albums. She received four Grammy nominations and won a Grammy Award in 2014 for her "Overcomer" album.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS