After previously telling the media that she didn't want to talk about the provocative photos that surfaced during her recently concluded American Idol journey, Antonella Barba has apparently had a change of heart.
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The 20-year-old Point Pleasant, NJ native spoke with Access Hollywood about the photos during the syndicated entertainment news program's Monday night broadcast.
"I would love to know, I would love to know," Barba told Access Hollywood when asked if she knew who initially released the racy photos onto the Internet. "But at this point, I don't really know how I could track that person down because [the photos] are now in the hands of so many people."
The photos first emerged in mid-February when Idol revealed its sixth season semifinalists and Barba was one of them. Despite the fact that even more photos surfaced, Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe eventually announced that the show had decided not to disqualify Barba, and after receiving off-camera support from Idol's host and judges, she remained a semifinalist on the reality competition series.
"[The photos were] irrelevant, it's garbage... it wasn't met for the public eye. I am singing to the public, and that is something I'm intentionally putting out there," she told Access Hollywood. "But you know, my personal life was not meant for everybody."
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According to Barba, she first learned of the photos' release from friends who had remained in contact with her when she competing in Idol's semifinals.
"[I found out about it by] friends calling me being like, 'Oh, you're on the Internet. Check this website, check that website,'" Barba told Access Hollywood. "And I was just like, 'Oh God, I don't want to see it.'"
While Barba claims to have learned of the photos' release through friends, she also seems to have been previously aware that the photos' emergence was a possibility. According to Barba, she -- in a statement that would appear to directly conflict with Lythgoe's previous claim that he didn't know anything about the photos until the media alerted him to their existence -- had previously warned Idol's producers about the photos.
"[Idol producers] had already known about it because I had told them about pictures that had been taken that could come out... and there was no getting in trouble with Idol itself because they knew about it the whole time," Barba told Access Hollywood.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio