Ashley Tisdale recounts postpartum depression’s toll on marriage

Ashley Tisdale said postpartum depression after the birth of her first child strained her marriage to Christopher French, recalling that she tried to divorce him many times during their daughter’s first year. She discussed the experience with French on his podcast, Recovering, in an episode published September 30, according to the reports. Tisdale said she had worked to manage anxiety before becoming a mother and believed she was emotionally prepared for a child. After Jupiter was born, however, she experienced postpartum depression and found that the tools she had learned for anxiety were not helping. She described the period as intense and said she had nearly a panic attack while sitting in traffic. In recounting the effect on their relationship, Tisdale said they had difficulty during that first year and credited French’s calmness with helping them through it. Her remark about trying to divorce him was part of her account of how overwhelming the symptoms felt, rather than a report that the couple separated or began divorce proceedings. Tisdale said her symptoms improved around Jupiter’s second birthday, when she was told she had experienced postpartum depression.