Gwyneth Paltrow On Overcoming Postnatal Depression

 
 

FIRST PUBLISHED: April 17, 2008 6:46 PM EDT
LAST UPDATED: April 17, 2008 9:01 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

Gwyneth Paltrow may be a celebrity, but she has long kept her private life discreet.

Now she has chosen to share some of herself in a new, revealing interview with Vogue, addressing the postnatal depression she suffered following the birth of her second child.

“I felt really out of my body. I felt really disconnected. I felt really down. I felt pessimistic,” she said.

That’s how the postnatal depression affected the Oscar winner after the birth of her son, Moses. But, Paltrow told the magazine, “I didn’t know I had it until after it was over.”

The 35-year-old star of the upcoming summer blockbuster in the making, “Iron Man,” said one reason she may have suffered from postnatal depression was because she immersed herself in motherhood following the birth of her first child, Apple. No nanny, no relaxing massages, no time for herself.

“When I had Apple, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her,” Gwyneth said. “When I work, I leave the house before the kids are awake. And I come home and they’re asleep. So that’s why, ever since having them, I’ve never played a lead in a movie.”

Gwyneth said she was coaxed out of leading lady retirement, thanks to a call from “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau.

“When Jon called me about ‘Iron Man,’ I thought, ‘This is the kind of cast I dream of working with and I could go back to work and not work five days a week,” she said. “It was the perfect, perfect, perfect job for me.”

And despite returning to a big role in a film, Gwyneth has found a way to balance her career and being the mom of two.

“I keep everything very simple. I think the thing that drives most working mothers crazy is this idea that they can’t do everything. ‘I don’t know what to wear. I don’t know what to cook. I can’t work and do this and that and the other.’ But I find that as long as you’re not depressed, if you simplify everything, you can do anything,” she said.

Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
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