LONDON (AFP) - The creator of the blockbuster Harry Potter books, JK Rowling, admitted she had "suicidal thoughts" after separating from her first husband in the mid-1990s, in an interview published Sunday.

"Mid-twenties life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," Rowling said in an interview with a student magazine at Edinburgh University, which was re-printed in the Sunday Times.

"The thing that made me go for help... was probably my daughter. She was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought, this isn't right, this can't be right, she cannot grow up with me in this state."

Rowling and her first husband, Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes, had their daughter Jessica in 1993 but split up several months later.

The author, now 42, said the end of the three-year marriage plunged her into despair.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking 'I'm a little bit miserable.'"

She said she sought treatment from her regular doctor, but he was away and the replacement doctor failed to take her problems seriously.

When her own doctor returned to work, she re-read the case notes and prescribed cognitive behavioural therapy, which typically involves sessions with a counsellor to help patients counter negative thoughts.

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

The author, whose seven books about the boy wizard have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide, said she was happy to talk about mental health problems to counter the stigma associated with depression.

"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 said.

Rowling, who is said to be a billionaire, eventually married again, to British anaesthesiologist Neil Murray in 2002. They have had two children together.

Source: AFP