Janet Jackson gives rare insight into her motherhood experience

Janet Jackson has given a rare insight into her life as a mother and expressed her hopes for her son’s future.

The Pleasure Principle singer, 58, shares her seven-year-old son, Eissa, with her billionaire ex-husband, Wissam Al Mana, 49.

Opening up about her motherhood experience to the UK’s Loose Women, Miss Jackson said, “I’m so thankful that God allowed me to experience motherhood, because it didn’t have to be. I do a lot of reflection, it’s amazing because kids don’t realise what you go through as a parent or what you have going on the back burner.”

Revealing she is not encouraging her son to follow in her path to music fame, she continued, “It’s about him. If that’s what he wants, but I would say that he has to wait until he’s of age and still make sure that’s what he wants to do. Whatever you do is very difficult. The industry is very tough, but he would have to wait until he is 18.”

The star – whose brothers were the Jackson Five and included late music icon Michael Jackson – went on to explain she has some regret about being forced into the spotlight at a young age by her father, Joe Jackson.

She said: “I am happy because he obviously saw something that I didn’t, but I still wish I would’ve experienced college. Or, I should say university. I always wanted to experience that. I was just a baby when my brothers were successful, so that’s all I’ve ever really known.”