Hayden Panettiere is not alone. The Nashville star, 26, announced on Tuesday, Oct. 13, that she is seeking treatment for her postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter, Kaya, in December 2014. But she is not the first celebrity mother to struggle with the disorder.
Many others have been vocal about their battles with postpartum depression. Here are six proud famous moms who have overcome the mental illness:
1. Brooke Shields
The model and actress, 50, was very passionate about normalizing postpartum depression for other mothers. In April 2006, she released her best-selling memoir, Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, to highlight the serious issue that is often overlooked.
“I think postpartum depression is one of those things where we don’t want to admit it’s real,” the mother of two told pal Marlo Thomas in a 2013 interview. “We’ve been told that it’s the most natural thing in the world to have children. It is so far from being blissful, and I think people need to admit that. The scariest part for me was looking at my daughter and truly not feeling a thing.”
2. Courteney Cox
Six months after welcoming her daughter, Coco, the Friends alum, 51, admitted to suffering from a delayed postpartum depression.
“I went through a really hard time — not right after the baby, but when [Coco] turned 6 months,” she told USA Today in 2005. “I couldn’t sleep. My heart was racing. And I got really depressed. I went to the doctor and found out my hormones had been pummeled.”
3. Amanda Peet
The actress and mother of two opened up about her own battle with the disorder after the birth of her daughter Frankie in a 2008 interview with Gotham magazine, saying, “I had a fairly serious postpartum depression. I think it was because I had a really euphoric pregnancy.”
4. Gwyneth Paltrow
Though she had no problems with her first child Apple, the Oscar winner suffered a setback in 2006 after welcoming son Moses with her then-husband, Chris Martin. “At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn’t feel anything,” she told Vogue UK of that time in her life. “I had no maternal instincts for him — it was awful. I couldn’t connect, and still, when I look at pictures of him at 3 months old, I don’t remember that time.”
5. Kendra Wilkinson
The Girls Next Door alum, 30, has been open in the past with her lifelong battle with depression and suicide attempts, but after the 2009 birth of her son Hank, she also spoke about her postpartum depression. “I felt devastated, helpless — like I was in a black hole,” she said at the time. “I was a mess and a wreck. I felt like nobody cared about me any more. I had so much anger inside. I even thought of harming myself.”
6. Bryce Dallas Howard
The Jurassic World star, 34, confessed to her own struggles in Paltrow’s Goop newsletter, telling readers she cried daily, wasn’t able to eat, and would frequently lash out at her loved ones.
“[My husband] would ask what he could do to help, but knowing there was nothing he could do, I screamed expletives at him, behavior he had never experienced in the seven years we had been together,” wrote Howard, a mother of two.
