Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow is experiencing continued success with her career, having recently received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But not everything has been smooth sailing in her private life. After her second child, Moses, was born in 2006, Paltrow said she had reached the lowest and weakest point of her life.
“I felt like a zombie. I couldn’t access my heart. I couldn’t access my emotions. I couldn’t connect,” Paltrow is quoted in the February issue of Good Housekeeping. “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. I just thought it meant I was a terrible mother and a terrible person.”
What helped Paltrow overcome this debilitating condition? She credits her supportive musician husband, Chris Martin. She says of her Coldplay frontman, “I can depend on him. He makes me laugh. He’s really appreciative of me. You know, he makes me feel special.”
She says it was her husband who recognized that she might be suffering from postpartum depression after having her second child and was the first to use the actual term.
“About four months into it, Chris came to me and said, ‘Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong,’ ” Paltrow recalls. “I kept saying, ‘No, no, I’m fine.’ But Chris identified it, and that sort of burst the bubble.”
“I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child,” Paltrow says. “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. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure.”
Thankfully, Paltrow has beat the depression and she says she is loving her role as a mother.
