E!’s Kendra is starting a brand new season (with a companion release of Kendra Wilkinson’s newest memoir (Being Kendra: Cribs, Cocktails, and Getting My Sexy Back). She talks openly about suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth to their son Hank IV, which led to breakdowns, fights, sleeping in a separate bedroom than her husband Hank Baskett, and even giving him a black eye in a drunken fit of rage in May 2010.
She told both Life & Style and In Touch that Hank got so stressed out one time during their fights that he had a panic attack and passed out! In fact, through all of the emotional turmoil and domestic violence, their marriage almost didn’t make it through last year, which means the rumors last year of a possible divorce for the reality couple were correct.
Kendra blames her depression on the lack of attention she got after her baby was born, and her resulting desire to isolate. “I had all this attention on me during my pregnancy, and the second I had a baby it was like nobody gave a crap about me . . . I wanted every second to be with my baby. I went two weeks without showering and I didn’t care. I would sit on the couch by myself pumping milk and watching the baby sleep, staring a blizzard outside. I was so miserable.” She’s talking here about living in Indiana when Hank was playing for the Colts. During this time, as she’s already told the media numerous times, and used a story line in her television show, she was upset over her post-baby body, and would sometimes overeat when she was feeling depressed.
Kendra told In Touch that she got so sad she thought about suicide: “I had so much anger inside. I even thought of harming myself. I threatened [suicide] a lot. I felt like that was my only way to really get to Hank and to show it.”
Sometimes, during her crying and yelling, she asked Hank to take the baby away. Sometimes she would go into Hank’s bedroom, kick his bed, and wake him up to start a fight. She would torture him about his lack of job stability (Hank’s been traded in the NFL a lot) and threatened to run away with baby Hank. She also said she’d take her anger out of crew members of her reality show, and family members.
Kendra now claims that going back to work, and being on Dancing on the Stars this year, has helped her; and now things are stronger than ever in her marriage. She also told L & S that the fights between herself and Hank help them “learn a lot about each other. It makes us stronger. We love each other so much more after we go through hard times.”
Not to disparage Kendra’s move in the right direction, but that last statement sounds a like a co-dependent relationship, and doesn’t bode well for the future if they’re focusing their happiness on the upswing they experience after abusive fighting. Domestic violence is never okay, and it’s also worrying that Kendra gave Hank a black eye.
Kudos, though, to Kendra for talking opening about depression. When celebrities talk about their dark times, it makes others experiencing the same thing feel less alone.
