Celebrities With Postpartum Depression

Around 13 percent of new mothers develop a serious condition called postpartum depression. This condition lasts longer than your average “baby blues.”

Fame and fortune has not exempted mothers from postpartum depression. Here are just a few celebrities who experienced depression after siring their bundles of joy:

Amanda Peet

In 2008, Peet fessed up to a “fairly serious” case of postpartum depression.

She attributed it to her “euphoric” pregnancy with child Frankie.

Brooke Shields

One of the most popular poster girls for postpartum depression, Shields made the condition a household name after sparring in 2005 with Tom Cruise. The actor-scientologist openly lambasted Shields’ use of antidepressants to treat her condition.

She chronicled her torturous passage through this condition in the book Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression. Here Shields talks candidly about her birth to Rowan; the onset of the symptoms; the diagnosis; and the subsequent therapy.

In an interview with People magazine, Shields admitted not getting treatment soon after being diagnosed. In the end, she did fight – and survived.

Bryce Dallas Howard

Far from her hardhearted character in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Howard would cry every day after giving birth. She would refuse food and verbally attack family and friends. Her husband would be at the receiving end of diatribes from Howard, whose behavior then had no precedent.

Howard shared her experience with postpartum depression in Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP newsletter.

Carnie Wilson

Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips fame went through the same ordeal after siring daughter Lola Sofia.

Wilson would cry every day thereafter over the smallest issues, she confessed to People magazine. She said the condition was indescribable, a state of mind unpredictably alternating between joy and sadness. She would constantly have feelings of inadequacy as a mother.

Courteney Cox

As she related to USA Today, the Scream 4 actress experienced postpartum depression as late as six months after delivering daughter Coco.

Cox had trouble sleeping at the time, her heart always beating fast.

A trip to the physician verified the madcap state of her hormones.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow spilled her heart out to British Vogue about her depression following the birth of Moses in 2006.

She described herself then as something akin to a robot, insensitive and harboring no maternal affections for Moses.

So far downhill was she then that today she could not reminisce intimate moments with Moses when he was three months old.

Kendra Wilkinson

After giving birth to Hank, reality television celeb Wilkinson would not brush her hair or teeth.

She would not even take a bath.

She would take a look in the mirror and just ponder how miserable she is.

Lisa Rinna

Melrose Place vixen Lisa Rinna became depressed after delivering her two daughters.

She even had homicidal tendencies at some point – and feared for her family as a result.

She often thought of ammunitions and using them on her family. As a precaution, she got hubby Harry Hamlin to conceal all the sharp objects and put the gun away from the house.

Marie Osmond

Even the usually sunshiny Marie Osmond is not impervious to postpartum blues.

In her 2001 tome Behind the Smile: My Journey out of Postpartum Depression, she extensively recounted her battle with the disease following the birth of her youngest child Matthew.

Valerie Plame Wilson

Extreme baby blues also extends to spies. Wilson, the famously exposed CIA operative, opened up at length about suffering from postpartum depression in a chapter of Fair Game.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wilson would often sob hysterically and give in to anxiety and panic attacks during her depression. The former spy said her abilities to solve problems and adapt to novel circumstances were greatly impaired during this time.