- Our next guest became an international superstar
as a member of Destiny's Child,
♪ I'm a survivor ♪
I was, I was in the video, in my brain movie.
Since then she's gone on to a successful solo career
as a singer.
And she's out now with a new book
called Checking In, say hello to Michelle Williams.
(clapping, cheering and musical intro)
Hello, I am so honored to have you on this show.
I love you already.
And we don't even know each other.
So I sound like a stalker
(laughing)
- Stop it, I am so excited to be on your show.
Congratulations. - Thank you!
- I just love when I see my fellow peers
in music transition on to other passions.
So thank you for having me.
Yeah, well, thank you so much.
Speaking of transition, you have a book out now.
That's amazing.
And I love how honest it is.
It's called Checking In and I feel
like a lot of people are gonna relate to this
and I think it might help a lot of people get through
a lot of their depression and anxiety.
How did you feel comfortable enough to open up about that?
- Well, I'll back back to about 2013,
I was doing an interview
and it was so conversational and I kind of just blurted it
out that I had been dealing with depression for a long time,
since about seventh grade, and fast forward to,
you know, 2018, I had another incident, you know,
it was a dark moment for me.
And I ended up having to check in,
I voluntarily checked in to a mental health facility.
And I think I wanted to try to be a voice
for people who, like for me, I went
from the seventh grade to my thirties without a name
for what I had been feeling, which was depression,
and to bring hope is really my ultimate goal.
- Well, in the book you talk about checking in with others.
So what does that mean with you?
- For me, as far as checking in with others?
You know, I have a very small circle.
And so during this pandemic, we've learned to be more
intentional and not take anything for granted.
You know, when we were told to lock down,
I'm a home body anyways,
so it worked out for me. - Me too, yeah.
- I love being home. - Me too.
- I adore it.
You know, but my heart goes out
to people who thrive with, you know, having to
have human connection.
But honey, it was a lot of, you know, videos, FaceTiming,
phone calls, texting, just checking on each other more so
than often.
And I think my friendships were actually strengthened.
- That's great, I do think so too.
I think, especially because a lot of us were, you know,
broken down jobs in a way it was kind of
like we all kind of had, it was a lot
of self-reflection I think a lot more
than people thought was gonna happen in 2020.
But we talked with Kelly Rowland a few months ago actually.
And she said that you were in the room
on Zoom for the birth of her son, which is crazy.
I mean, it's super special, but also like what,
like you saw all that?
(laughing)
- Yeah. - Yeah. (clapping)
That is friendship.
- Listen, if I ever doubted my place
in Kelly Rowland's life.
Getting the invitation to watch her giving birth,
put all doubt out the window.
- Oh my gosh.
That, it would scar me.
Like, I'm glad I never saw that
before I got pregnant, I would've never-
- It was beautiful, Kelly.
It was beautiful. - I, you know, what, Michelle,
I'm so different, I'm so different. (laughing)
So what do you say when people ask you
about like a Destiny's Child reunion?
I know people have to ask about it all the time
but I feel like y'all hang all the time.
You're always together probably, but you just probably
aren't doing music stuff all the time.
- That is correct.
We're not doing music at the moment, but we're together
more so than not.
If it's, if it's together, just even just yesterday
doing a FaceTime chat.
I love, I love the ladies.
I'm here for singing together again.
I think we do some of the dopest music
and arrangements together.
So we'll see.
I'm always open to doing music again with Beyonce and Kelly.
Always.
- It's just such a, yeah, wow, the chemistry is amazing.
I love you guys.
I love you as well.
Everybody, Michelle's book is called Checking In -
How Getting Real about Depression Saved My Life -
and can save yours.
You gotta check it out.
We all need this right now.