Ashley Tisdale Details Wanting Divorce Amid Postpartum Depression

Ashley Tisdale Welcomes Baby No. 2 With Husband Christopher French

Ashley Tisdale is sharing a vulnerable look at her struggle with postpartum depression. 

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody alum reflected on her past struggles following the birth of her and husband Christopher French’s daughter Jupiter, now 5, noting it put a stress on their marriage. 

“You dealt with a lot of that and we had difficulty during that first year,” Tisdale—who also shares Emerson, 2, with French—told her husband on the Sept. 30 episode of his Recovering podcast. “I tried to divorce you so many times. But you’re so grounded and calm and knew to just let it blow over.”

Indeed, the Hellcats star—who has been open with her struggles with anxiety—shared that she felt she felt completely lost in her struggles after welcoming Jupiter. 

“I was so proud of myself for dealing with the anxiety stuff and being like, ‘OK, now I am ready to have a child because I feel like I’m equipped emotionally to be able to do that,’” the 41-year-old shared, “But then I got hit with postpartum depression which is really hormonal and all the tools that I learned and knew to use, you can’t use.”

What’s more, Tisdale’s anxiety grew even worse amid her PPD. 

“It was very intense,” she recalled. “I remember being in a car and almost having a panic attack just being in traffic and then nobody was diagnosing me with it, too.”

Finally, the High School Musical actress’ doctor gave her a diagnosis when her symptoms cleared around Jupiter’s second birthday. 

“I remember feeling so much better when the two-year birthday came and she was like, ‘Oh, you had postpartum depression,’” Tisdale explained. “I was like, ‘What? How did you not know to tell me this?’ I was just like, ‘Man, that’s crazy ’”

Meanwhile, French emphasized that he felt completely helpless during Tisdale’s struggles. 

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Feeding America and North Valley Caring Services

“It’s so hard,” he recalled. “You would be so loving and happy to hold Jupiter, you know she was just born we’re like, ‘Wow we’ve got a baby and this is so crazy’ And then, within a few minutes it was like your entire mood had shifted. Like, everything had changed.”

The 44-year-old detailed watching Tisdale “lay on the floor and crying in pain,” unable to make her feel better. 

“It was so brutal and seeing you go through that,” he added, “and not being able to do anything about it, besides just trying to find some way of helping to make the stressful time of having a newborn baby slightly easier so that you had the space to go through it.”

Luckily, Tisdale shared that her PPD experience after welcoming Jupiter was the “hardest part” of becoming a mother—noting she didn’t experience symptoms as severely with her second baby. As she put it, “It’s pretty cool doing it again and not having that experience.”

For more stars who have addressed their mental health struggles, keep reading… 

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