Hayden Panettiere’s Postpartum Depression Story Proves We Penalize Women for Health Issues

In an interview on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, Hayden Panettiere opened up about her experience with postpartum depression…and what her journey with the condition cost her. 

The actress revealed that after she gave birth to her daughter, she knew she needed help. Panettiere enrolled in an inpatient facility where she was being treated for alcoholism — nobody ever mentioned the possibility that she may be experiencing postpartum depression. “I felt unfixable,” she said. 

Eventually, Panetierre did what so many women do: She found the answers herself. Because of the stigma around postpartum depression, and because of how misunderstood the issue is, she had to research and figure out on her own what she was experiencing…and when she spoke about her experience, she lost a longtime endorsement deal. 

“This was the last thing I thought they would ever fire me over,” she said. “Never for a second did I think that anyone [would have a] bad reaction to it. It was my truth. So when I got the call that Neutrogena wanted to fire me over that, and my representative at the time said ‘that’s illegal’...[I knew] I was not going to be invited back the next year. And I’d worked with these people for ten years, and I remember not hearing a word from anybody.”

This is clearly a penalization of a woman for experiencing a health issue. And it’s disgusting.

This was 11 years ago, and the conversation around PPD has come a long, long way since then. But next time you ask why women aren’t speaking up about what they’re truly going through, consider this: If a wealthy, famous, white woman suffered such consequences for experiencing a common maternal health issue, imagine what other women are truly afraid of.