New parenthood is filled with incredible moments, as well as some serious challenges. You’re adjusting to your new role as a parent, dealing with a lack of sleep, experiencing hormonal changes and taking care of a tiny, helpless newborn. All of these changes can, understandably, feel very overwhelming, and for some women, they can lead to the "baby blues" or even postpartum depression (PPD).
While PPD can feel isolating, know that you're not alone. Up to 15 percent of new moms — and some new dads — will be diagnosed with PPD, and help is available. And whether it's an online support group or your favorite celebrity parent's Instagram page, hearing stories from other moms who have had the condition can be a helpful reminder that PPD is relatively common, never your fault and nothing to be ashamed of.
Many famous parents have spoken out about their experiences with PPD, from what the condition feels like to strategies that helped them manage their symptoms. Below, 25 quotes about PPD from celebrity moms that may provide you comfort and strength.
Postpartum depression quotes from celebrities
Serena Williams
“Honestly, sometimes I still think I have to deal with [postpartum depression]. I think people need to talk about it more because it’s almost like the fourth trimester, it’s part of the pregnancy. I remember one day, I couldn’t find Olympia’s bottle and I got so upset I started crying... because I wanted to be perfect for her.” — Harper’s Bazaar UK, May 2018
Diana, Princess of Wales
“It had been quite a difficult pregnancy — I hadn't been very well throughout it — so by the time William arrived it was a great relief because it was all peaceful again, and I was well for a time. Then I was unwell with postnatal depression, which no one ever discusses, postnatal depression, you have to read about it afterwards, and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time. You'd wake up in the morning feeling you didn't want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood and just very, very low in yourself. … I received a great deal of treatment, but I knew in myself that actually what I needed was space and time to adapt to all the different roles that had come my way. I knew I could do it, but I needed people to be patient and give me the space to do it.” — BBC1, November 1995
Cardi B
“I thought I was going to avoid [postpartum depression]. When I gave birth, the doctor told me about postpartum, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m doing good right now, I don’t think that’s going to happen.’ But out of nowhere, the world was heavy on my shoulders.” — Harper’s Bazaar, February 2019
Kelly Rowland
"One chapter in my book, I talk about postpartum depression and baby blues, and I think some women are made to feel ashamed about it, and that's a huge problem to me. And I remember talking to a friend of mine who's also my therapist... and he kept calling me like after I had my son and I was wondering, 'Why does he want to keep calling me and FaceTiming me?' He's like, 'I just want to see you and talk to you.' [I] come to find out later, he said, 'I was just looking for all signs of postpartum depression.' He was like, 'I really feel like that chapter in your book has got to be so intimate, and you should speak to mothers in a really vulnerable way, and just let them know it's okay to talk about it, it's okay to ask questions, it's okay to engage, you know, in these conversations with other mothers, because they're always made to feel ashamed about it and there's no reason to.' Talk, talk. We have so much mental illness in this country, and if we don't talk about it, then it's internal. And when it becomes internal, then it becomes toxic and poisonous." — BUILD SERIES, April 2017
Gwyneth Paltrow
“I felt like a zombie. I couldn't access my heart. I couldn't access my emotions. I couldn't connect. It was terrible. It was the exact opposite of what had happened when Apple was born. With her, I was on cloud nine. I couldn't believe it wasn't the same [after Moses was born]. I just thought it meant I was a terrible mother and a terrible person. … I think it was the fear of loving a little boy as much as I loved my dad and more. … About four months into it, Chris [Martin] came to me and said, 'Something's wrong. Something's wrong.’ I kept saying, 'No, no, I'm fine.' But Chris identified it, and that sort of burst the bubble. … The hardest part for me was acknowledging the problem. I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child. But there are different shades of it and depths of it, which is why I think it's so important for women to talk about. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure." — Good Housekeeping, January 2011
Reese Witherspoon
“I've had three kids. And then after each child, I had a different experience. One kid, I had kind of mild postpartum and then one kid, I had severe postpartum where I had to take pretty heavy medication because I just wasn't thinking straight at all. And then I had one kid where I had no postpartum at all. … But I do think hormones are such an understudied and under, not understood, and I kept reaching out to my doctors for answers. ... So I have deep compassion for women who are, who are going through that and really always trying to help, you know, the people that I'm in touch with. And even my audience on Instagram and everything connected to people over that. Postpartum is very real. And there's so many resources that we just have to help each other find what they are and keep getting the word out there.” — I Weigh podcast, April 2020
Danielle Brooks
"I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy, and I think I did go through postpartum depression. I was trying to stay positive when it felt like my whole world had flipped upside down. Creating a human takes a toll on women's bodies. Sometimes we don't give ourselves enough love or patience about that." — Parents, March 2021
Behati Prinsloo
“I had moments of postpartum [depression] after our first baby that I felt like it was coming through. But my husband was so incredibly supportive and always got me out of it. I think it's very normal, though, as a young mom and a new mom to feel helpless and to feel overly emotional, you know. And I think I got lucky not to have it to an extreme case, but you can see yourself spiraling. And I think that the message is just that it's never too little to ask for help. So no matter how small your feelings and stress — or whatever it is about being a new mom — there's always help out there and support from family and friends. And I think nobody judges anyone.” — Today, June 2019
Rasheeda Frost
"When I was finally released from the hospital, a few days went by and I began to realize that something wasn’t exactly normal with me. I wasn’t that fierce, strong, happy Rasheeda that I used to be. My mind was cloudy. I was tired. I felt down and lost, and would cry all the time. It came to a point that I would retreat away from my family and avoid my friends. ... When I looked in the mirror, I did not resemble myself whatsoever. I felt worthless, and would get horrible headaches and bad anxiety. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I spoke to my doctor and found out I had postpartum depression. For me, the discovery was relief to finally be able to put a name to what was happening with me — something that had been affecting every area of my life. It was time to figure out my next course of action." — People, April 2017
Brooke Shields
"[My postpartum depression] gripped my heart to such an extent that I didn't even have the desire to try to overcome it. I mean, I was flattened by it. I was devastated by it. And it wasn't the ‘baby blues.’ And I was told it was the ‘baby blues’ at first. And so then, what was wrong with me was even worse. I thought, "Well then I must epitomize failure if I can't even get past this. ... [I want other moms to know that] it has nothing to do with your love for [your children]. … Pay attention to the feelings that you're feeling and talk about it and ask your doctor. … Find out what medicine's available. You don't have to be miserable.” — Oprah, 2005
Sarah Michelle Gellar
“Having kids is wonderful, and life changing, and rarely what you're prepared for. I love my children more than anything in the world. But like a lot of women, I too struggled with postpartum depression after my first baby was born. I got help, and made it through, and every day since has been the best gift I could ever have asked for. To those of you going through this, know that you're not alone and that it really does get better.” — Instagram, May 2017
Sara Haines
“I think the postpartum [depression] caught me off guard. Because when I realized, oh, this is what [perinatal depression] looks like; postpartum [depression] looks so different. I didn’t realize you could be struck twice by lightning with the same child.” — What to Expect podcast, September 2020
Nicolette Robinson
"I definitely went through postpartum depression in a certain way [after my first pregnancy]. I think that there was some depression there, you know, mixed in from being so isolated and so much without [my husband Leslie Odom Jr. while he was away filming]. And there was a lot of, you know, I guess, trauma involved in that, that I'm trying to always also keep in mind as we go through this pregnancy to not bring that into this one." — What to Expect podcast, Janurary 2021
Drew Barrymore
“I didn’t have postpartum [depression] the first time, so I didn’t understand it because I was like, ‘I feel great!' The second time, I was like, ‘Oh, whoa, I see what people talk about now. I understand.' It’s a different type of overwhelming with the second. I really got under the cloud.” — People
Bekah Martinez
"As a kid, I had a lot of undiagnosed anxiety and obsessive-compulsive issues, but I grew up in a household that stigmatized mental illness. I thought that admitting I needed help showed weakness. But I learned from experience that becoming a mom can definitely take a toll on your well-being, especially during the postpartum period. In my case, I started having dark thoughts, obsessing about the dangers of the world and the vulnerability of my own children. All this was compounded by the severe sleep deprivation from having two babies just 16 months apart. It was excruciating and got better only once I became open to therapy." — Parents Latina, March 2021
Bryce Dallas Howard
“Postpartum depression is hard to describe — the way the body and mind and spirit fracture and crumble in the wake of what most believe should be a celebratory time. I cringed when I watched my interview on television because of my inability to share authentically what I was going through, what so many women go through. I fear more often than not, for this reason alone, we choose silence. And the danger of being silent means only that others will suffer in silence and may never be able to feel whole because of it.” — Goop
Alanis Morisette
“For me I would just wake up and feel like I was covered in tar and it wasn't the first time I'd experienced depression so I just thought Oh, well, this feels familiar, I'm depressed, I think. And then simultaneously, my personal history of depression where it was so normalized for me to be in the quicksand, as I call it, or in the tar. It does feel like tar, like everything feels heavy. … [With my second child, I waited to get help for] four months. I know! And now this time I'm going to wait four minutes. I have said to my friends, I want you to not necessarily go by the words I'm saying and as best as I can, I'll try to be honest, but I can't personally rely on the degree of honesty if I reference the last two experiences.” — Self, June 2019
Adele
“I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son, and it frightened me. … My knowledge of postpartum — or postnatal, as we call it in England — is that you don’t want to be with your child; you’re worried you might hurt your child; you’re worried you weren’t doing a good job. But I was obsessed with my child. I felt very inadequate; I felt like I’d made the worst decision of my life. … It can come in many different forms.” — Vanity Fair, October 2016
Tia Mowry
“When I knew that I had postpartum [depression]… I didn’t want to admit it. It was that shame. ... I told my sister about it. I told my husband about it, and I told my friends about it. They became my support system. So when I was sad or going through my emotions, I would talk about it. I didn’t suppress them. I think that helped.” — Romper, November 2019
Lisa Rinna
“After having my first daughter Delilah, I had severe postpartum depression. I kept it secret. I didn't say a word to anybody in the world. [My husband] thought I was just nuts. He had no idea what was going on and I was so hopeless and felt so lost, that when I finally, 10 months later, opened up to him and told him how worthless I felt … Opening up [about] something that I felt so much shame about was the most valuable thing that I could have done. … I suffered silently and I don't want any woman to ever have to do that again. You have to talk about it.” — HLN, December 2012
Hayden Panettiere
“It takes you a while [to know you have PPD] and you feel off, you don't feel like yourself. But, you know, women are so resilient and that's the incredible thing about them. And I think I'm all the stronger for it. I think I'm a better mom because of it, because you never take that connection for granted.” — Good Morning America, January 2017
Lena Headey
“I was postnatally depressed but I didn’t know it. I saw a doctor for the medical check, and I just burst into tears. She said I was postnatally depressed and I went, ‘Am I? Why is that?’ I saw a great guy and he sorted me out, but I did the first year on "Game of Thrones" in that space, figuring out motherhood and going through a weird time personally. It was tricky.” — Porter, July 2017
Melissa Rycroft
“I thought I had a really bad case of the baby blues. I was three months into it before I realized it could be postpartum depression. [My husband] Tye [Strickland] — clearly he knew something was wrong. When I brought it up, he said he’d been thinking it, but I was the one to bring it up. I had a massive case of denial, though. I thought women with postpartum depression wanted to hurt their babies. But for me, it had nothing to do with [my baby] Ava. I had this big emptiness that you shouldn’t have right after you have a baby. I was like, I don’t want to seem like I’m not happy — it’s just that there’s something chemically wrong. I would get frustrated and angry really easily. Usually I’m very in control with my emotions, and that had changed. ... I’m still not 100 percent yet, but I’m getting there. … I urge everyone to talk about it, so it can be much easier for other women who go through it.” — The Bump, March 2017
Tess Holliday
“I’ve been open about my struggles with postpartum depression, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized I had extreme PPD. …. Moms are expected to ‘bounce back’ physically and emotionally. We are expected to ‘stay strong’ for the family. Yet most of us (myself included) still have days where we feel like a stranger in our bodies, unattractive to ourselves (and partners), lonely because friends stop inviting you to stuff, etc. I’m grateful to have support in my life, friends to talk to, but it got so bad that I had to take action and by doing so it potentially saved my life… I guess what I’m saying is, moms/parental figures: you have to take time to care for YOU. Don’t let it get to the point mine did where you feel like you’re losing your mind. Don’t think because your child isn’t a ‘baby’ that you couldn’t still be suffering from PPD, because I’m here to tell you, you most definitely can. Ask for help, talk to someone, find a support group or hell, message me. You aren’t alone & you don’t need to suffer alone.” — Instagram, May 2018
Gretchen Rossi
"I really went through a difficult period where, I realize now, I was depressed and I had a lot of anxiety, and sadly, I really wasn’t connecting with [my daughter Skylar] at the very beginning. And then I came to realize [when] I went to my pediatrician appointment and I was crying and I broke down in that appointment, and my pediatrician said, ‘You know, Gretchen, I think maybe you need to think about the fact that you might have some serious postpartum.’ ... I was really struggling and I was having an internal conflict with the fact that I had this beautiful, amazing miracle baby... and I just was having a hard time compartmentalizing how to manage my life now with this new baby." — The Doctors, September 2019
If you or someone you know is suffering from PPD, remember that you’re not alone and help is available. Check out these resources for more support and information:
- Office on Women's Health (800-994-9662)
- National Library of Medicine, Medline Plus
- Postpartum Support International (800-944-4PPD)
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (800-950-NAMI)
- What to Expect's Postpartum Depression Group
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