When cameras are rolling, Emmy Award-winning reporter Kristen Hewitt comes across as calm and unflappable. But there’s another side Hewitt’s viewers don’t see. “I hide my anxiety well,” she exclusively tells Us Weekly. “The only person I confide in is my husband and occasionally a therapist or acupuncturist.” That all changed on Saturday, August 26, however, when Hewitt wrote a Facebook post detailing her struggles with the disorder.
“Today my anxiety told me I couldn’t my kids to go on vacation with my husband because the plane might crash,” the mom of Lila, 7, and Emy, 5, shared on her account. “Today anxiety brought me to my knees in tears that wouldn’t stop for hours. Today anxiety had me hiding in my room, afraid for my kids to see me so upset. Today anxiety made me believe I wasn’t good enough.”
Hewitt, who covers the Miami Heat for Fox Sun Sports, was diagnosed with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her eldest daughter Lila. When the 41-year-old entered perimenopause in her thirties the symptoms came back in full force.
Until now, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based TV personality never talked about her anxiety publicly. “I was afraid others would I think I was weak. I was afraid people would know I’m broken,” she revealed on Facebook. “But I’m not, just a little banged up.”
She continued: “Women — we change after having kids. Sometimes it’s depression, anxiety, sometimes both. But we need to confide in others and get help. Process what’s happening. Find the root and try heal.”
In her post, Hewitt, who always appears poised during her live segments, reminded readers to not believe what they see on TV and Facebook. “Every person you know has something,” she wrote. “We show our best on social media, carefully curating the content we want the world to see. Hoping not to soil our ‘reputations.’”
Hewitt tells Us her anxiety tends to rear its ugly head when she’s at home. “Every day life can feel overwhelming,” she says. “Having kids is a full-time job. They require more than just food and toys and they need love and comfort 24 hours a day. I feel more stressed about screwing them up than I do interviewing athletes on live television.”
