‘I didn’t like who I was’

She is one of the most glamourous people, an edgy sex symbol and the sister of none other than late pop legend Michael Jackson, but did anybody know Janet Jackson used to bang her head against the wall in bouts of depression? The pop diva revealed all to Piers Morgan of CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight.

“There was a time when I was so down and felt so unattractive and it lasted for a very, very long time. I used to bang my head against the wall,” she confessed.

“I didn’t like who I was. I didn’t like the way I looked. Knowing what I was going through, looking at myself in the mirror, realising that I’m not myself,” she added. “It’s been tough. But I’ve learned to deal with it,” said Jackson.

Not many know there are two sides to this brilliant stage performer — one with all the confidence and then the shy, retiring diva. Normally a private person, the singer-dancer-actor, has now revealed her true struggles in a new book True You. “I’ve always written about my life experiences, and this is just another step, another level for me,” she says.

And did you know the 44-year-old who inherited music as a legacy never wanted to beat around the same bush. “When I was 5, 6, 7, I wanted to be a horse-racing jockey. When I was 14 and got my first recording contract, I didn’t want to sing. I wanted to go to school and study business law. I wanted to act,” said Jackson, who is going to hit the road for a greatest hits tour.

“I’ve been very blessed, very fortunate, and it’s made me who I am today, the good, the bad, the ugly, the all of it. (But) there are moments when I wish I could just crawl into a little shell and for no one to know who I am,” she added. And on her legendary brother Michael? She said most people misunderstood him.