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Celebs who have suffered from postnatal depression

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• Gwyneth Paltrow

  The actress and mom-of-two describes the “awful” postnatal depression she experienced after the birth of her son Moses in 2006 as, “one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life”.
  
  "At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn't feel anything," she said. "I had no maternal feelings for him – it was awful. I had no thoughts of harming him, thank God, but I couldn't connect, and still, when I look at pictures of him at three months old, I don't remember that time."
  
  She continues: “I just didn’t know what was wrong with me… I felt really out of my body. I felt really down; I felt pessimistic… My problem was that I never acknowledged anything was wrong. I just carried on as normal, and I just felt crazy. It was Chris [Martin], actually, who said out loud that something was wrong. And that was such a relief when he did because it was confirmation that it wasn't just me."

  Source: Getty Images

• Judy Finnigan

  TV presenter and mum-of-four Judy suffered postnatal depression after giving birth to her youngest child, Chloe. “After three boys I was over the moon to have a girl. For the first 10 weeks everything was fine, but then I sank into this state of total despair. I never stopped feeling strongly maternal towards Chloe, but I’d wake up in the morning and everything was grey, monochrome,” she says.
  
  “It felt like there was no sun in my life. All I wanted to do was sleep, and yet I couldn’t sleep, and I was having awful panic attacks. I’d never known anything like it. I thought I was going mad. Richard thought I was going mad too. To be honest, it got to the point where I felt quite suicidal.
  
  After 10 months, Judy went to see her GP who diagnosed postnatal depression and prescribed antidepressants. “At first I didn’t feel a thing,” she says, “but after three weeks it was as if a weight of clouds above my head had parted. I could see blue skies again. It was extraordinary. It got me completely back to normal.”

  Source: PA Photos

• Pearl Lowe

  The singer-turned-fashion-designer was admitted to a psychiatric unit with PND following the birth of her third child, Frankie, in 1999.

  “I had three beautiful children, a boyfriend in a world famous rock band and a lovely house. I felt terribly guilty, a freak who had everything and no right to be there. That's the problem with postnatal depression - it hits you at a time when everything is supposed to be wonderful, and it's often hard for those on the outside to understand,” she explains.

  For six months she had been “in the depths of despair,” crying all the time and unable to get out of bed. It became so bad that she took an overdose – and woke up in a manic-depressive unit, an experience which proved to be the turning point that would lead to her recovery.

  Source: Getty Images

• Fern Britton

  The TV presenter has written openly about her experiences of postnatal depression in her autobiography, My Life by Fern Britton. “Post-natal depression isn't inevitable, even for someone with a history of depression like me,” she writes. “I genuinely didn't expect that I would succumb. Why would I? I'd wanted these babies so much, gone through so much to get them - and Fate had smiled on me.”

  She continues: “I used to fantasise about getting into the car and just driving at a wall. All I had to do was turn the wheel a few degrees. It wasn't to kill myself, just to turn off the light, make things stop.”

  It was her mother who finally intervened and made an appointment for her to see the family GP. Fern was diagnosed with post-natal depression and put on Prozac. “I'd had what amounted to a breakdown, but nobody had known because I'd become so adept at hiding it.”

  Source: PA Photos

• Lisa Rinna

  The American actress suffered from severe postnatal depression following the birth of each of her daughters. “With my first child, I didn't know what hit me. I felt horrible and didn't understand why,” she says. “That first bout lasted about 15 months. With my second child, I was able to get help right away.”

  In her book Rinnivation: Getting Your Best Life Ever, she describes how she was haunted by visions of killing her husband and their daughters. "People don't talk about this. It's very, very scary and vulnerable. I had visions of knives and guns. I made Harry hide all the sharp knives and take the gun out of the house because I had visions of killing everybody. Now how horrific is that? I wanted to share it because I think women are so shamed by this and feel so horrible... I found help and got through it."

  Her advice? “I'd say that if you notice any signs, call your doctor immediately. You've got to take care of yourself.”

  Source: Getty Images

• Elle Macpherson

  The supermodel checked herself into the Meadows Institute in Arizona suffering from exhaustion and depression after the birth of her second son, Aurelius Cy. She completed a six-week intensive program of treatment for something which she now describes as “a sort of post-natal depression”.

  "I took the steps I needed to take in order to recover," she said. "The truth was, I just did what I needed to do and addressed a lot of issues that needed addressing and had a well-earned break, which I really needed as well. I had never done anything like that in my life and that's about it,” she says.

  Elle also admits to having faced a “ridiculous” amount of pressure to lose weight after the birth. “It's like there's this competition as to who can lose weight the quickest after a baby - it's unhealthy for both mother and child,” she told Harper's Bazaar magazine.

  Source: Getty Images

• Brooke Shields

  The actress and mum-of-two was one of the first celebs to speak out about postnatal depression, and even wrote a book about her experiences, called Down Came The Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression. 

  After a miscarriage and seven in-vitro fertilisation attempts, Brooke and her husband were thrilled when she gave birth to baby Rowan in 2003. “I finally had a healthy beautiful baby girl and I couldn't look at her," she recalls. "I couldn't hold her and I couldn't sing to her and I couldn't smile at her... All I wanted to do was disappear and die."

  Brooke says she considered suicide as she thought the baby “would be better off without me”. Eventually, she was diagnosed with a chemical imbalance. “If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help,” she admits. “I would have worn it like a badge ... I didn't at first – but finally I did fight. I survived."

  Source: Getty Images

• Courtney Cox

  The former Friends star was over-the-moon after giving birth to her first child, Coco, in June 2004 – but started to feel vulnerable, “small” and depressed six months later.

  “I went through a really hard time - not right after the baby, but when she turned six months,” she recalls. “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 pummelled.”

  Courtney reveals that taking the steroid hormone progesterone helped her return to her normal self - as did support from close friends Jennifer Aniston and Brooke Shields, who famously suffered from, and overcame, postnatal depression.

  Source: Wireimage.com

• Melinda Messenger

  Melinda suffered from mild depression after the birth of her first son Morgan, but it was after the birth of her second son, Flynn, that she experienced postnatal depression like “a dark black pit”.

  "It was more painful and took longer to lift,” she recalls. “I felt suicidal. I couldn't stop crying - at playgroup, in the car, at home. I remember thinking 'Wouldn't it be great if the car crashed and I died?' I could never have done that to my children, but I just wanted the pain to end."

  Eventually Melinda confided in her midwife, who contacted her GP. "It was a relief when he told me what was wrong - I thought I'd gone mad. Unfortunately, worse was to come following the birth of her daughter, Evie, in 2003 but with the support of her husband and five month’s of cognitive behavioural therapy she was able to see light at the end of the tunnel.

  Source: PA Photos

• Ruby Wax

  The comedienne and mum-of-three has spoken out about her long struggle with depression, which was first diagnosed at the age of 10. Ruby suffered from severe postnatal depression following the birth of her daughter Marina, which recurred for a short spell in 1998.

  Following her initial diagnosis, she checked herself into the Priory clinic in southwest London for treatment for a nervous breakdown – and checked in again when it recurred.

  She says: "I think it was because I'd had three children in a row, late on and fast and I never stopped working, so I became depleted.” She was able to get back on her feet following a course of medication and therapy, but in interviews, says that depression continues to be a life-long battle for her.

  Source: PA Photos

• Sadie Frost

  The actress-turned-fashion designer suffered from severe postnatal depression following the birth of her second son Rafferty, fathered by Jude Law. In her autobiography, Crazy Days, Sadie recalls having an overwhelming urge to harm herself.
  
  “I watched my hand slowly pick up a pair of scissors. It was as if I was being sucked down lower into the chair and the scissors seemed to be drawn to my arm,” she writes. “I appeared to have cut myself. Blood dripped down my arm. There was no sense of panic within me - I just felt empty.”
  
  Sadie was admitted to hospital and successfully treated for PND, but the illness returned and she required treatment again after the birth of her third child, daughter Iris Tallulah, in 2000, and son, Rudy, in 2002.

  Source: Getty Images

• Suzanne Shaw

  The ex-Hear’Say singer and Dancing on Ice champion suffered with postnatal depression following the birth of her son Corey in December 2004. Suzanne admits that “a lot of it was circumstantial,” caused by her partner Darren Day walking out on her as he “was unable to commit to being a dad”.
  
  Coping with a new baby and severe financial problems led to some “very dark days”. She says:  “I was very afraid of becoming a single mum, and the thought of doing it myself was daunting. I remember at one point not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
  
  “I literally crawled on my hands and knees on the floor, hiding, when bailiffs came knocking at my door. My Mum Janet, who was living in New Zealand, had to order food parcels and have them delivered to me because I didn’t have a dime to spare.”

  Source: PA Photos

• Zoe Ball

  The TV personality and DJ has been candid about the difficulties she faced as a new mother and her experiences of postnatal depression.
  
  Zoe said she went "a bit loopy" after the birth of her son Woody, and once said: "I'm not a natural, brilliant mother.”
  
  She has also revealed how her own mother was not ready for marriage or motherhood, and didn't see her between the ages of five and 18. “She was young, didn't want to be a mum, so legged it. I can understand that. After I had Woody it was hard. I thought, ‘God, don't let me leg it like my mum.’”

  Source: PA Photos