Keira Knightley has candidly spoken about her experience with postpartum depression, describing the emotional and physical challenges she faced after giving birth to her daughters, Edie (10) and Delilah (6), with husband James Righton.
Appearing on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, the Woman in Cabin 10 and Black Doves star revealed she went through a significant “hormonal crash” after giving birth — an experience that eventually led her to seek therapy.
I remember the kind of hormonal crash. I’d been on this amazing hormonal high, and then there was a crash down. I think after that it was post-natal depression for a while. I did lots of therapy about a year, maybe a couple of years later, to sort of deal with all of that. But it was confusing, not having that physical side of it made everything more confusing.
Knightley shared.
Knightley recalled the exhaustion that followed her first birth despite no medical complications.
There wasn’t any sleep for three years, and that was for a completely normal birth. Everything was fine and still, despite everything being completely fine, this huge, life-altering thing had happened.
The actress also reflected on societal expectations about postpartum recovery and body image.
I was very surprised that it didn’t [bounce back]. I’ve always had a body where I did very little, and it came back. And it didn’t. And it hasn’t. But I was also like, there’s more important things — I’ll just buy a bigger size of jeans.
she said
Knightley criticized how the public once discussed motherhood and postpartum recovery:
At that point, I felt like the public discourse around it was terrible. ‘Can you get back in your jeans yet? Back to work? Nothing’s happened.’ I’m on a different planet. I didn’t care about my jeans.
Beyond her postpartum reflections, Knightley also spoke about parenting in the digital age. During a recent interview on BBC Radio 4, she discussed her decision to ban social media in her household to protect her children from “terrifying” and “unregulated” online spaces.
They’re not allowed on devices if we can’t see what they’re looking at. We’re at one of the schools that’s doing that ‘social media-free’ childhood where the parents mostly all do the same thing.
she explained.
Knightley admitted she’s unsure how long she can maintain this rule as technology becomes more ingrained in children’s lives, but she remains committed to fostering a safe and grounded environment.
Source: People
