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Halle Bailey is powering through a “severe” period of postpartum depressing following the birth of her baby boy, Halo. The 24-year-old Little Mermaid star got candid in a recent Snapchat video about her experience, noting that this has “nothing to do” with her son, whom she shares with boyfriend DDG.
“I have severe, severe postpartum [depression],” Halle said in the clip last week, according to an Instagram fan account that reshared her post. “And I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out.”
The Color Purple actress then pointed out that “feeling normal in [her] own body” has “been hard” for her.
“I feel like a completely different person when I look in the mirror,” Halle explained. “I just feel like I’m in a whole new body, and I don’t know who I am. … I didn’t realize how serious of a thing it actually was. Now, going through it, it feels like you’re swimming in this ocean that’s, like, the biggest waves you’ve ever felt, and you’re trying not to drown.”
Despite the difficult physical and mental experience, Halle insisted this “has nothing to do with my baby. It has everything to do with me and who I am right now.”
Later in the clip, the “Angel” artist pointed out that she wanted to share her story after seeing “hurtful” comments about her online.
“It’s honestly really crazy to me that people would feel the need to say such hurtful things,” Halle said. “Normally, I’m OK. I’ll see it — and it will hurt my feelings — but I won’t say anything. I just suck it up, swallow my pride and wish that person well. But today, I couldn’t because it grows something in me to bring awareness to. … You never know what somebody else is going through especially someone who just had a baby.”
In January, Halle announced via Instagram that she had welcomed her first child with DDG. Her social media post confirmed what social media trolls had been speculating for months — that she was pregnant. However, the Chloe x Halle artist chose to reveal the news on her own terms.
Two months later, Halle delivered a powerful speech at Essence‘s Black Women in Hollywood Awards in March. She took the moment to explain why she didn’t want to “expose” her baby boy to the public eye.
“There was no way in hell I was going to share the biggest joy of my world with anyone,” she said. “Halo was my gift, is the greatest blessing, and I had no obligation to expose him, me or my family to that unyielding spotlight.”