'God gives you respites': Marie Osmond talks about dealing with son's suicide, postpartum depression

Donnie and Marie Osmond are household names in entertainment and a favorite for many people over the years.

As we observe November as National Adoption Month, our focus is on Marie Osmond, who lost one of her adopted children to suicide a few years ago.

Marie Osmond shared her struggles and triumphs with mental illness in a one-on-one conversation with WRAL.

Osmond has felt at home on a stage for six decades. She still finds joy in performing, but she now shares that passion for entertaining with a mental health mission to help others heal.

"The pandemic created a real opportunity to open it up for discussion," Osmond said.

Osmond is taking advantage of that opportunity to share her own mental health struggles and how she is healing.

"God gives you respites in between, a little bit," Osmond said. "I also believe that by sharing, you don't feel alone. You feel like other people understand."

Osmond says, 12 years after her son Michael died by suicide, it doesn't get any easier but healthy coping she says, comes with time. However, she also recalls a time when she endured public backlash for going back on stage not long after her son died.

"What people don't understand is I had seven other children that were hurting, that needed to see their mother keep living," Osmond said.

Nine years before her son's death, Osmond also went through a bout of postpartum depression, she eventually wrote a book about her experience, behind the smile, my journey out of postpartum depression, these days, she hopes by sharing her own mental health struggles and triumphs, she can help others heal.

"God says, there's joy in sorrow; I don't think there's any joy in sorrow," she said. "I think the joy that is spoken of, the way I believe it means, is that, I can look at somebody and say, I understand and they know I do."

Osmond says, there's joy in giving others hope.