Dawn Robinson was a founding member of a successful singing group that was part of the pop soundtrack of the ’90s, but things have changed.
In a video shared on her YouTube channel Tuesday, the former member of En Vogue, whose many hits include My Lovin’ and Hold On, revealed that hard times have led to her living in her car.
Robinson said she planned to share this information when she first started her channel, though some people told her, “You shouldn’t talk about it because you’re a celebrity and what if they judge you?”
“I’m like, ‘OK and what if?'” the singer continued.
“What if they judge me? So what? We’re all judged. Life is life.”
She then took some deep breaths and made her confession.
“For the past three, almost three years I have been living in my car,” she said, before squealing. “I said it. Oh my God it’s out!”
Robinson explained that back in 2020, she was living with her parents in Las Vegas and “that was wonderful until it wasn’t.”
She ended up living in her car for a month when her co-manager offered to let her come stay with him in Los Angeles.
“He said ‘I don’t have a lot of room, but I’ll make room for you,'” Robinson recalled.
“But then when I got to his place, he actually didn’t have room for me.”
Instead, she said, she ended up in a hotel for eight months and had difficulty getting an apartment.
Robinson said she started researching “car life” and learned there is a community of people who choose to live in their vehicles.
“I felt free. I felt like I was on a camping trip,” she recalled how she felt after adjusting to living in her car in 2022.
Robinson said she didn’t reveal her living situation to seek pity. Instead, she hopes her story of resilience will inspire others.
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“It’s not ‘woe is me,'” Robinson said.
“I’m learning about who I am, I’m learning myself as a person, as a woman.”
She plans to continue documenting her current life, which she described as an “adventure” and an “unexpected path that I’ve enjoyed quite a bit.”
