 Jennifer Hudson is an American recording artist and actress who rose to fame due to her immense success on the hit television reality series American Idol. Growing up in Chicago, Jennifer never strayed from her childhood city and actually ended up buying her multi-million dollar dream home here a few years back, which we'll take a look at. In these videos, we don't reveal any addresses and even though I've done a house tour of my own place, please do not show up at any private residences because it's not safe for anyone. For those of you who don't stay up to date with American Idol, it might surprise you to know that despite blowing everyone out of the park with her unbelievable range and incredible voice, Jennifer didn't actually win the competition. No, that honor went to Fantasia Berino, which probably has most of us asking ourselves. But if you watch our videos on here, you know we recently did a house tour on Fantasia 2 if you want to check that out. Anyways, not only did Jennifer not place first, she didn't even place in the top three. She finished seventh, but her career has blown every other contestant from that season out of the water. She's gone into a stellar singing and performing career, one that's arguably more successful than anyone else in idol history, not named Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson. She's also become a prolific actress after her star-making performance in Dreamgirls, for which she won not only an Academy Award, but a beat out her former rival Fantasia for the role as well. Talk about a little bit of payback. Because in large part to her many smart career moves, Jennifer has steadily built up her profile while accumulating a pretty penny at the same time. In fact, Jennifer is now rocking an estimated $20 million net worth thanks to her superstar status in the entertainment industry. The youngest child of three, Jennifer, grew up in the Chicago area and was raised in the Englewood neighborhood. In fact, the house she grew up in on South Eel Ave is now infamous but for all the wrong reasons, which we'll get into in a little bit. But not only has Jennifer never abandoned her ties to the city of Chicago in 2011, she bought her dream home in the Burr Ridge area of the city for a cool $3 million. How's it going guys and girls? It's Kara here for you with a brand new house tour, this one taking a look at a few different homes of one of the most talented singers in the world, Jennifer Hudson. I don't know about you guys, but I can never get enough of her voice and today I'm going to give you guys a peek into where she lives, both past and present with another little bonus or two along the way. Don't forget to let me know what you guys think by following me on Instagram or down in the comments. Alright, let's get into this video. I'm going to kick this video off with Jennifer's primary place of residence, an absolutely gorgeous mansion that she picked up in 2011 for close to $3 million in the suburban neighborhood of Burr Ridge in Chicago. This 12,000 square foot castle-like property was described in its listing as a majestic estate and it was first built back in 2007. The sellers had the home custom built after buying the lot from a developer in 2004 for only $435,000. Once the house was constructed, it was originally listed for over $4 million, but Jennifer was able to get that total down to $2.75 million. The house features six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a Brazilian cherry floorboards throughout and comes with plenty of other fancy extras like a spiraling floating staircase in the massive front foyer, two laundry rooms, a game room and an in-house screening room. Meanwhile, the kitchen is huge and offers plenty of space to entertain and it's only a short walk from there to the massive dining room set. A little bit down the hall is a living room with huge ceilings and enough space to fit a grand piano. For all those impromptu sing-alongs that Jennifer no doubt takes part in. Speaking of the music business, she's also got a classy office upstairs to take care of her paperwork and contract signings. And not too far away from there's her master bedroom with its perfectly complimented fireplace and television entertainment hub. Inside the ensuite bathroom is everything you would expect to find for Jennifer to lavish herself in luxury, especially that gorgeous tub. The exterior of the home is nearly as nice as the interior with its well-manicured front lawn and a backyard space that features some remarkable stone pavements. All in all, the home features 16 different rooms, five fireplaces and enough heated garage space for six different cars. Recently, Jennifer took part in the concert experience together at home to do her part in helping out with this worldwide lockdown we've all been facing and she showed off a little bit of her tastefully decorated music room in the process. Now with stunning as this place is, Jennifer's experience in her new block haven't all gone perfectly. In fact, despite being a native daughter of Chicago and arguably one of its most famous citizens, Jennifer still faces prejudices even in her own neighborhood. For instance, she told Cosmopolitan UK, people assume that my home belongs to my white driver, Charles. One time I was having something moved into my house and they wanted to know where to put it. I said, there. The moving man just stood there. When Charles came in, he asked him, so where would you like these things? Charles said she said she wanted it right there. You're talking to the wrong person. Not a great look to be sure, but also sadly, far from the worst thing to ever happen to Jennifer and her family in the city of Chicago. Now we're going to take a look at Jennifer's childhood home, a place that no doubt holds a ton of amazing memories for Jennifer, but unfortunately, a truly tragic one as well. If you were to see her old house on the street, you'd probably think it was much like many of the others nearby. But this white two-story house located on South Hill Ave, with its chipped paint and crumbling front steps, has sat vacant behind a rusty iron fence for close to 12 years after a large portion of Jennifer's family was taken away from her in the blink of an eye. On October 24th, 2008, Jennifer lost her mother, Darnell, brother, Jason, and nephew, Julian, after they were gunned down by her former brother-in-law, William Balfour, a known gang member in the Englewood area. William had formerly been married to Jennifer's sister, Julia. They were divorced at the time, but still seeing one another. In fact, William lived on the same street as the Hudson family. Balfour had been a former classmate of Jennifer and was not someone she ever felt comfortable around. The family reportedly resisted Julia's marriage and have said that he threatened Julia's life if she ever were to leave him. On that horrific day in October, Julia returned home to find the bodies of her mother and brother, shot to death in their home. Julia's son was reported missing and his body would be found three days later. After the attack was reported, hundreds of people visited the house to pay their respects and offer their support, holding a late night candle vigil and singing one of Jennifer's songs, Spotlight. Julia's estranged husband would be charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion before finally being sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole on top of another 120 years for other convictions. Following this tragedy, Jennifer and her family created the Hudson King Foundation for familiars of slain victims, as well as the Julian D. King gift foundation in honor of her young nephew. For a decade now, the house is set vacant. The last person to hold a deed to the home remains Jennifer's mother Darnell and the house fell into a state of disrepair. For a very long time, three white crosses sat on the front yard for the lives lost there that day. In 2013, Julia Hudson told dnnfo.com, we sell on the home and I would like to turn it into a shelter for women as soon as possible. At least that is what I would like to see the house used for. Despite Julia's intention, this never seemed to happen. Apparently the bank acquired the property in the end. With four bedrooms and one and a half baths, the bank is hoping to find a fire but considering what happened inside and that renovation costs would be huge, finding a suitor is far from a guarantee even for a low 20K asking price. But there's no way I want to end the video on that. My heart goes out to Jennifer and her family members or for everyone they lost that day. Now I wanna show you that despite living through something as terrible as that, Jennifer didn't lose her faith in love and humanity. In fact, if anything, she doubled down on it. Not only did she spring into action and create the charities I mentioned earlier, she also continued to look for more opportunities to bring joy into the life of others including her very own long-time assistant, Walter Williams. About four Christmases ago, Jennifer surprised Walter by buying him his very own house and while I don't have any pictures for you of the place, what I do have is better. Walter's reaction to finding out. Ah! Ah! Talk about bringing joy to someone else. That might just be the best Christmas gift a personal assistant has ever received. All right guys, we'll bring this video to an end right here. What did you guys think of Jennifer's home? That house in Burrage definitely looks like it has everything you could possibly need which must be why she's still living there close to 10 years later. Let me know what you guys think about this story in the comments down below and don't forget to follow me on Instagram. I'll see you all in the next video. Bye.