Justine Lupe Opened Up About Her Postpartum Anxiety

Justine Lupe said she didn’t really experience postpartum depression, but she certainly had something else. The actor, who stars in the hit Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This, recently sat down for an interview for Who What Wear’s first-ever parenting issue. When asked about what she thinks isn’t discussed enough about new parenthood, Lupe had an immediate answer: the hormonal shift when weaning.

“I had crazy anxiety,” she said. “It was a little bit scary. I felt a different thing than I'd ever felt — sad, anxious. My body was totally out of control, and my brain didn't understand what was going on.”

Lupe recently gave birth to her first daughter, Ellis, and said that while she didn’t have any postpartum depression, she experienced two months of intense anxiety, even wondering if this was just going to be her new reality forever. It wasn’t until she spoke with other parent friends, including co-star Kristen Bell and Succession castmate Sarah Snook, that she realized many other people experienced the same kind of pain she’d undergone.

Lupe’s Castmates Showed Support

Snook, who Lupe said was pregnant while the two were filming Succession Season 4, sent her podcast episodes about dealing with postpartum and checked up on her regularly after leaving the hospital.

“[Snook] was really helpful in terms of being like, ‘You have nine months of pregnancy, and you're gonna get so much information about being a pregnant woman, and people forget about what happens after you give birth,’” Lupe recalled.

She praised the many women whom she leaned on for support. “KB just has a maternal air about her,” Lupe said of Nobody Wants This co-worker Bell. “She always has snacks, and she's always giving advice and has an article that she just read.”

Lupe also revealed that she began filming the first season of Nobody Wants This at the end of her first trimester, in which she spent most of those months recovering from mono. She praised the costuming department for continuing to fit her as her body changed during her second trimester.

“I would eat a burrito, and then everything would just pop open. My skirt would just be on the ground, and I'd be like, ‘Oh no, I'm expanding past the capacity of my clothes,’” she said.