“I didn’t feel like I could sing lead when I came out of [Destiny’s Child] because for so long I felt like I had sacrificed myself for the greater good,” the 41-year-old said. “With a lot of partnerships, we lose ourselves to become one or we feel it’s going to make us cohesive or make the situation work out better.”

Luckett, who joined the group at age 11, said she would have told her younger self to not lose herself.

“That I still matter. I still have a voice,” Luckett said of what she would have told her younger self. “Still remain confident in who God created you to be and the gift that He gave you. You don’t have to shrink yourself to be good at your role….I learned so much from that situation.”

Despite the struggles she faced, the artist said she still holds a strong relationship with her former band members.

“It’s beautiful that after so many years the love is still there,” she said. “Through everything we’ve been through people can assume that we hate each other and it didn’t work out and blah blah blah but we were friends first.”

According to Cheat Sheet, Luckett previously said she and LaTavia Roberson were kicked out of the group after they expressed a number of concerns, including pay, management and their roles. The two singers settled in court after suing the group, along with former manager, Matthew Knowles. Luckett later released her own studio albums and singles.

“I’m never annoyed when somebody brings up Destiny’s Child. I’m so blessed and grateful for the experience of everything,” she told Page Six in February. “I was a little girl, I was 11 years old when I became a part of that group. But when they overdo it and make me feel like that’s my only accomplishment, then it’s like, ‘Now wait a minute’…I feel like I’m in a place in my life, in my career, where people [aren’t saying], ‘The former member of Destiny’s Child’…and that’s because of my present work.”