Barbra Streisand at the 31st annual Kennedy Center Honors - arrivals at the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC, USA - 07.12.08

The legendary performer struggled from humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York to propel herself to stardom - becoming one of the few entertainers in history to win an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy and a Tony award.

But the star still remembers the stark realities of her childhood which made her strive for success.

She tells America's Early Show, "We never had a couch. We never had a living room.

"We only had a dining room and then my grandmother and grandfather lived in one bedroom. My mother, my brother and I slept in another bedroom... Now, I love couches."

And despite Streisand's impoverished roots, she didn't receive any encouragement to better herself - insisting her mother warned she wasn't "pretty enough" to become a star.

She adds, "(My mother would say) 'You'll never make it. You're not pretty enough."

However, the Evergreen singer believes it was her family's lack of encouragement that made her want to prove herself.

She says, "I owe her a lot because, in a sense, I was proving to my mother that this skinny, little girl, you know, unconventional looking, I suppose, could be a movie star."

Source: WENN