Singer Charice Pempengco may have an impressive professional resume that includes chart-topping music, performances with the likes of Andrea Bocelli, and a role on television hit "Glee," but long before she had any of this success, she was a young girl living with her dad, mom and brothers in the Philippines. Charice spent her early childhood in a poor community -- and her family's modest home was wrought with violence, she says.
In 2006, Charice returned to her hometown of San Pedro Laguna for the first time in more than a decade as a part of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Upon seeing her childhood home, the then-teenager broke down in tears, recalling painful memories of her abusive father, including a time when Charice says she saw him choke her mother and threaten her with a shotgun.
After that traumatic incident, Charice's mother took the children and left. Charice was 3 at the time and never saw her father again.
Then, in 2011, Charice's father was murdered in the Philippines. Despite having no contact for years, Charice tells "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" that her father's death affected her greatly and heightened difficult personal issues she had been struggling with, like her sexuality and gender identity.
"When my father got murdered, that's when everything fell apart," she says. "I got even more depressed."
At that point, Charice was also estranged from her mother (they have since reconciled), and felt completely alone in her struggles, depression and grief. When she attended her father's funeral, Charice hadn't seen him in more than 15 years.
"Losing my dad, knowing that we didn't have any closure, when I went to the funeral, I just saw him right there and regretted everything," she says through tears.
Tabloids reported that Charice attempted suicide in the aftermath of her father's death, but she tells Oprah that this isn't true.
"The rumor is not true," she says. "I did not slit my wrists -- but I thought of it."
Ultimately, Charice channeled her grief in an empowering way that allowed her to accept and embrace her true self.
"I took all those feelings, I took all the pain... [It] made me stronger, to tell myself that it's time to stand up and go out there," she says.
"Maybe I'm wrong, but correct me if I am," Oprah says. "Your father's death actually liberated you."
Charice is quiet for a moment.
"That gave me chills," she says, before getting emotional. "That feeling is just coming back right now. It was terrible... The feeling of after he died, feeling alone. I was alone."
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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