10 Famous Moms Who Shattered The Stigma Of Postpartum Depression

"There’s a lot of misunderstanding and I feel like there’s a lot of people out there who think that it’s not real, that it’s not true, that it’s something that’s made up in their mind. And ‘Oh, it’s hormones’ and they kind of brush it off and it’s not true. It’s something that’s completely uncontrollable and it’s really painful and it’s really scary and women need a lot of support.”
From her 2015 appearance on "Live With Kelly and Michael"

"I didn’t have postpartum 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.”
From her 2015 interview with People

“I also just didn’t think it could happen to me. I have a great life. I have all the help I could need: [my husband] John [Legend], my mother (who lives with us), a nanny. But postpartum does not discriminate. I couldn’t control it. And that’s part of the reason it took me so long to speak up: I felt selfish, icky, and weird saying aloud that I’m struggling. Sometimes I still do.”
From her 2017 essay for Glamour

"I want to speak out for those who cannot speak up for themselves, and give them hope so they are comforted in knowing they are not alone and can take their life back. I want to shatter the stigma associated with postpartum depression, helping to raise awareness and educate women about what is really going on with them and shedding light on the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression and treatment options."
From her 2017 blog featured on People

"When you're depressed with a new baby, everybody tells you that you should be so happy and should feel so good. [My husband] Ira, too, felt bad about what I was going through, but he added to the chorus. 'You have so much to be happy about.' So add guilt to the list, a horrible guilt that I was not happy and joyful when I should have been. I would see other mothers with babies who were on top of it, and it made me feel worse, totally inferior."
From her 2011 memoir titled "Life Is Not a Stage: From Broadway Baby to a Lovely Lady and Beyond"

“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.”
From her 1995 "Panorama" interview

"Opening up 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 to talk about it."
From her 2012 interview with Dr. Drew

"Then I had postnatal depression, which I didn’t realize for a long time. I went a bit nuts and eventually went to a guy who mixes Western and Eastern philosophy in terms of medicine and he put me on a course of something that changed everything."
From her 2014 interview with The Telegraph

"There was just so much chatter in my head and it got all jumbled up and really clouded me for a while. I did seek help and that was the best thing I ever could’ve done. If Mommy isn’t happy and healthy, then she can’t give 100 percent to her baby. That’s what I kept hearing, and that was the advice that I took."
From her 2016 blog featured on People

"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."
From her 2010 essay for Goop