Halle Bailey Opens Up About Struggling With Postpartum Journey: “I Don’t Know Who I Am”

Halle Bailey has publicly been all smiles throughout this year, but she recently opened up about how she’s been privately struggling with her postpartum journey. The Grammy-nominated songstress welcomed her first child, Halo, with her boyfriend DDG in December 2023. She took to Snapchat last week to share an honest update about how she has been navigating life since becoming a new mom.

The “Angel” singer began her sentiments by acknowledging how life-changing Halo’s presence has been. “I look at him and I cry because of how special he is,” she said before getting into her mental health. “The only thing that has been hard for me is feeling normal in my own body. It’s crazy. I feel like a completely different person when I look in the mirror, I just feel like I’m in a whole new body. I don’t know who I am.”

The 24-year-old then emphasized how the conversation surrounding postpartum depression should always be taken seriously, continuing, “I think there’s some things to be said about what women go through, especially after having a child and building and creating this beautiful new life and what happens to us and our well-beings right after. I do think that there’s a little bit of a stigma when you hear about postpartum.” She described how she often heard other women speaking about their postpartum experiences, but none of it hit home until she had a baby herself.

The Little Mermaid star also provided an analogy that compared her daily life to the feeling of drowning. “It almost 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, and you’re trying to come up for air,” she shared. “You have those moments where you come up for air and they’re like the most beautiful things and it’s great. Then, you have those moments where you’re drowning in it. It has nothing to do with my baby, it has everything to do with me and who I am right now.”

In related news, Bailey has continued to be booked and busy over the last few months. She dropped off two solo singles, “Angel” and “In Your Hands.” It was also recently announced that Halle will star in an upcoming musical by Pharrell Williams and French filmmaker, Michel Gondry. According to Variety, she will be featured alongside Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph in an unnamed work is described as a “coming-of-age musical set in Virginia Beach in the summer of 1977, inspired by Atlantis Apartments, Williams’ childhood neighborhood.”