It’s been two months since Hayden Panettiere admitted herself into a mental health facility to treat her postpartum depression.
Now, she’s made her first public appearance, looking both happy and healthy.
The 26-year-old accompanied her fiancé, Wladimir Klitschko, to his boxing match in Germany yesterday, wrapping herself in the Ukrainian flag to show support.
While Klitschko was unsuccessful in defending his heavyweight championship title, it’s undeniably wonderful to see Hayden beaming again.
Hayden has been refreshingly honest about her struggles with her mental health since giving birth to her daughter, Kaya, in December last year.
In October, a representative for Panettiere told People that she was “voluntarily seeking professional help at a treatment centre as she is currently battling postpartum depression. She asks that the media respect her privacy during this time.”
Coincidentally, Panettiere’s Nashville character Juliette Barnes has also suffered postpartum depression, something which has caused Hayden to draw parallels between their experiences.
“It’s something a lot of women experience. When [you’re told] about postpartum depression you think it’s ‘I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure or hurt my child’ — I’ve never, ever had those feelings. Some women do,” she said on Live! with Kelly and Michael last month. “But you don’t realize how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on. It’s something that needs to be talked about. Women need to know that they’re not alone, and that it does heal.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding — there’s a lot of people out there that think that it’s not real, that it’s not true, that it’s something that’s made up in their minds, that ‘Oh, it’s hormones.’ They brush it off. It’s something that’s completely uncontrollable. It’s really painful and it’s really scary and women need a lot of support.”
Although the road to recovery is never straightforward or easy, we look forward to seeing more of Hayden’s happiness, and send her our very best wishes.
Have you suffered from PND?
Top Comments
I had horrible PND and chose to hide it from my family, friends and doctor. It lead to my fiancé and I breaking up and there was numerous times that I contemplated suicide, my love for my daughter and my need to be "selfish" and be there for all her milestones growing up and worry that something would happen to her before someone found me were the only things that kept me around. It was a horrible time in my life and now that I've come through the other side of it all I honestly wish I would have asked for help when I needed it. It's not an easy thing to do but I'm so glad that Hayden spoke up and got the help she needed
Glad she's feeling better. Thanks mammamia for putting me on to Nashville, it's my favourite show, I just wish Juliette would get better too and I love her and Avery together, I hope they make it.