It’s always refreshing when celebrities discuss their challenges with mental health. Keri Hilson may have appeared to be thriving during her chart-topping years, but behind the scenes, the singer was facing a silent struggle that led to a major shift in her life and career.
Get this, in a candid conversation with PEOPLE, Hilson shared that during the height of her musical success, particularly following the release of her hit single “Pretty Girl Rock,” she was privately battling depression—something she had been carrying for years without pause.
“I was also depressed at the new height of my career with the success of ‘Pretty Girl Rock.’ I was just not okay. I was not well, I needed a break. I hadn’t taken a break since I was 14 years old in my first girl group. When we disbanded, I went headfirst into songwriting at 17, got my first big check by 18. I joined another group and was also writing while in college,” Hilson revealed.
What’s more she added, “So I never had a break from 14 to, say, mid-20s. It was already a decade of just pure dedication, and I needed a break. Fame was a beast for me, and I fell into a really dark place,” she said. “I needed to step away for a moment. I thought it’d be just a one-year moment, not a 14-year moment, but it turns out it was necessary. I really can’t regret it. I, as a human, needed that time.”
Hilson also admitted she came close to leaving the music world altogether, unsure if she could continue in an industry that no longer felt the same.
“I just wasn’t sure of it anymore. The industry was changing. I love making the art, I love doing music, I love making music, I love performing music — but I didn’t love everything that came with it. I didn’t love the heavy criticism,” she said. “It’s just not like the old industry now, and that, to me, felt like a threat. It felt like you have to be so careful and so cautious in how you speak, what you say, where you go, what you do, how you’re perceived, things you say or [post online]. It felt like I was playing a game of, ‘How many ways can I be misunderstood?’”