Gwyneth Paltrow Battled Postpartum Depression
Gwyneth Paltrow opened up to Good Housekeeping about raising two spirited kids, her new movie Country Strong, her battle with postpartum depression, life as Mrs. Martin, and the loss of her dad. Read an excerpt from our interview.
On motherhood:
"I've learned so much from being a mom about the kind of person I want to be, the kind of woman I want to be. Motherhood has taught me mindfulness. If you just parent on instinct, you'll screw your kid up for life. You have to be so mindful."
Related: Read the Full Interview with Gwyneth
On the loss of her father:
"He'd always been so full of fire, but all his wisdom and gentility came out." She looks away as tears fill her eyes. "I feel so sad my children won't ever experience his expressive, hands-on kind of love."
On her marriage to Chris Martin:
"Marriage is hard. Chris and I have had our ups and downs, big-time. Marriage is way more complicated than just Who gets to control the remote? But hopefully we keep heading in the same direction and getting through the obstacles."
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On faith:
"I believe in God, and I pray with the children every night. Apple likes to pray that she'll never get another cavity."
On mommy guilt:
"I do feel so guilty and, like, What am I doing? but I also want them to know work is really fun for me - 'Hey, look what I get to do!' As opposed to feeling like, Oh, I'm a terrible mother. Because that really just doesn't get you anywhere. It doesn't get them anywhere.'"
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On postpartum depression:
"I felt like a zombie," she says softly. "I couldn't access my heart. I couldn't access my emotions. I couldn't connect. It was terrible...The hardest part for me was acknowledging the problem. I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child. But there are different shades of it and depths of it, which is why I think it's so important for women to talk about. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure."
On playing a singer in her new movie Country Strong:
"I actually felt like a musician. It was so much fun to pick up a new skill. I can be a perfectionist, so I really practiced. And between Chris's help and the director needing me to be prepared, I was totally ready when the time came."
On family
"Since my dad died, I think a lot about what kind of life I really want for me and for my family. It's the struggle all women face. We have all these aspirations. We want this, and we want that. We take on too many activities, too many commitments. But, really, if you can figure out how to spend time with the people you love, how to laugh and how to take care of yourself, that's the whole thing right there. That's the very best part of life."
Photo by: Brian Bowen Smith
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