Sara Beth Liebe, a contestant on American Idol, doesn’t believe show business is for her, despite singer and judge Katy Perry’s insistence.
During Sunday night’s American Idol episode, Liebe, 25, left the vocal competition, claiming she felt guilty being away from her three young children.
The decision to give up comes only a few weeks after Perry, 38, faced backlash from viewers for “mom-shaming” Liebe, who gave birth to her first child at the age of 18, during her initial audition. For joking that Liebe had been “laying on the table too much,” Perry received criticism online.
During Sunday’s episode, Liebe first expressed her desire to leave the competition to guest vocal coach Clay Aiken, who was a runner-up on Season 2 of American Idol. As the pair rehearsed Liebe’s cover of Roxanne by The Police, she told Aiken she doesn’t “feel like I fit the mould” of an entertainer.
In an on-camera confessional, Liebe later called her Idol audition “something completely selfish” because it kept her away from her family.
Though the mom of three performed Roxanne for the judges, she was quick to back out afterward.
“This opportunity is really rad but this is actually gonna be my last performance because my heart’s at home,” she told the judging panel of Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. “So, I’m gonna get home to my babies, they kind of need me.”
