Hayden Panettiere Suffered from Postpartum Depression

Hayden Panettiere is opening up about her battle with postpartum depression and how her experience has been similar to that of her Nashville character Juliette Barnes.

“She went through that, which is something that I can very much relate to, and something that I know a lot of women experience,” the 26-year-old actress said on Live! with Kelly & Michael. “When [you're told] about postpartum depression you think it’s ‘I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure or hurt my child.’ I’ve never, ever had those feelings. It’s something, I think, that needs to be talked about, and women need to know that they’re not alone.”

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding. There’s a lot of people out there that think that it’s not real, that it’s not true. That it’s something that’s made up in their minds, that, ‘Oh, it’s hormones.’ They brush it off,” Hayden added. “It’s something that’s completely uncontrollable. It’s really painful and it’s really scary and women need a lot of support.”

Hayden gave birth to her first child with partner Wladimir Klitschko, a baby girl named Kaya, back in 2014.