Halle Bailey's Postpartum Depression Was More ‘Severe’ Than She Expected: ‘Trying Not to Drown’
Halle Bailey announced the birth of her first son, Halo, in a tender Instagram post in January 2024, calling him “the greatest thing that 2023 could have done for me” in the emotional caption. And while The Color Purple star describes Halo as a “perfect” baby, she also isn’t shying away from talking about the tougher parts of being a new mom, including postpartum depression. The 24-year-old got honest about the toll its taken on her mental health in a Snapchat video posted to social media by a fan last week.
“I feel like a completely different person,” Bailey said in the video. “When I look in the mirror, I just feel like I’m in a whole new body, like I don’t know who I am.” She said she’s struggled to feel “normal in my own body” since giving birth to Halo, her first child with boyfriend DDG after she kept the pregnancy a secret.
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“I think there’s something to be said about what women… go through… after building and creating this beautiful life,” Bailey went on. “What happens to us and our well-being right after?” The star referenced the lingering stigma around talking about postpartum depression and that she underestimated just how intense it would be. “I didn’t realize how serious of a thing it actually was,” she said.
Bailey described the experience of PPD as swimming in an ocean with “the biggest waves you’ve ever felt, and you’re trying not to drown and you’re trying to come up for air.” And like an ocean, the symptoms of PPD come in waves. “You have those moments where you come up for air and they feel like the most beautiful things and it’s great,” Bailey said. “Then you have those moments where you’re drowning again.”
Bailey described her PPD as “severe” and said it’s caused separation anxiety from Halo. “I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out.”
Bailey also noted that it “has nothing to do with my baby,” who she described as perfect and beautiful. “When I look at him, I cry because of how special he is,” she said. “It has everything to do with me and who I am right now.”
She said she felt “triggered” by social media comments about her family, which pushed The Little Mermaid star to make the video. “Normally I’m OK,” Bailey said, but added that “it’s really really crazy to me that people would feel the need to say such hurtful things.”
It’s a welcome reminder that words on the Internet have effects in real life, and that mental health struggles like postpartum depression can take their toll on anyone, celebrity or not. Bailey summed it up best: “Even though you may look up to certain people and you think that they are celebrities, and they appear to have it all together, you never know what somebody else is going through, especially someone who just had a baby.”
Before you go, check out these apps that can help with your own mental health:
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