Janet Jackson found joy in motherhood

Janet Jackson has opened up about her struggle to find happiness, saying she "fell easily into despair" but found contentment after becoming a mother.

In a candid letter for Essence magazine, the pop star said she had suffered low self-esteem and "intense" depression throughout her life.

"Depression is a tenacious and scary condition," she wrote. "Thankfully, I found my way way through it."

The 52-year-old thanked God and her infant son for helping her find peace, according to BBC News.

"The height of happiness is holding my baby son in my arms and hearing him coo, or when I look into his smiling eyes and watch him respond to my tenderness," she wrote of one-year-old Eissa Al Mana.

"When I kiss him. When I sing him softly to sleep. During those sacred times, happiness is everywhere."

"Happiness is in gratitude to God. Happiness is saying, 'Thank you, God, for my life, my energy and my capacity to grow in love.' "

Jackson is one of the most successful singers in US chart history, with 27 top 10 singles and 10 number ones - including hits like Nasty, That's The Way Love Goes and Again.

She first spoke about her struggles with depression on the 1997 album The Velvet Rope, which was written in the midst of an emotional breakdown.

"[I] couldn't get up at times," she told Newsweek upon the record's release. "There were times when I felt very hopeless and helpless, and I felt like walls were kind of closing in on me."