JK Rowling Admits 'Suicidal Thoughts'

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has confessed to contemplating suicide after her first marriage collapsed.

The 42-year-old author says she experienced “suicidal thoughts” in her mid-twenties after she split with husband Jorge Arantes, and she struggled to get the proper care from a replacement GP, who advised her to speak to a nurse if she felt “a bit low”.

“We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking 'I'm a little bit miserable',” Rowling reveals in a new interview with a Edinburgh University student magazine.

“Two weeks later I had a phone call from my regular GP who had looked back over the notes… She called me back in and I got counselling through her.

"She absolutely saved me because I don't think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice."

However, Rowling says she is happy to talk about her struggles, not least because she found the strength to battle through them to secure an estimated £500 million fortune from her massively popular Harry Potter children’s books.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never. What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that," she says.