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After being told she might never have kids, ‘American Idol’ contestant shares heartwarming news

Despite winning the ‘American Idol’ Season 18, Samantha Diaz had no work for months, eventually returning to busking in NYC

Following the latest trend of announcing pregnancy news via social media, another star has joined the list with a hard-to-miss reveal. Over the weekend, 'American Idol' season 18 winner, Samantha Diaz, a.k.a 'Just Sam', shared a carousel of pictures announcing her first pregnancy with her 203K followers on Instagram. The first picture is a sonogram image of the baby, followed by an image confirming the positive pregnancy test result. Finally, in the third slide, Diaz is seen taking a mirror selfie, revealing her growing baby bump.

However, the good news came after a year of struggle. Sharing her journey to motherhood, Diaz captioned her post, "To have made it past viability week after years of trying is truly a blessing!!! Thank you, Jesus, for this gift." She explained, "I was told at just 20 years old that I may not be able to carry children of my own or that I may have to try IVF to have a successful pregnancy/birth. The past couple of years, I have been trying on and off, and let me tell you .. I was starting to lose hope."

She added, "These past few months have been scary, having to be in and out of the hospital, but being past viability week is such a great feeling and does bring a little relief to me. I’m so happy to be on this journey, and I have been wanting this for so long and wasn’t sure this was even possible for me, so I’m beyond grateful and beyond excited to be on this journey and path to MOTHERHOOD!!!!!" The singer also shared her baby registry on her current Instagram stories, along with a photo of Amazon boxes containing gifts delivered over the weekend. Though the mom-to-be didn’t mention a romantic partner in the July 15 pregnancy announcement, the Amazon registry lists "Samantha D & Heather C" as the parents, revealing the baby's due date as August 31.

Things may appear to be going great for Diaz as of now; however, not many know that after the success on 'American Idol,' things were not all hunky dory. According to the Washington Post, three years after the win, Diaz admitted to busking in New York to make ends meet. Diaz, who won the show during the Pandemic in 2020, revealed what happened after the win. In an interview with TMZ, Diaz talked about how even after signing the coveted record deal with the label, no albums none of the albums were released. 

"No one wanted to work directly in the studios," and people were "still figuring out how to go back to normal," Diaz told the reporters. She also added that she was left stranded in a hotel room for months, with no work. According to Pop Culture, the following year, Diaz released two singles, 'Africando' in March 2021 and 'Change' in September 2021, but didn't achieve mainstream success. Since then, she has published many videos of her performing on the subways and streets of New York City, with a box at her feet. Diaz returned to 'American Idol' in April 2024 as a guest performer, finally living the dream she never got to live despite being crowned the winner.