Ashley Tisdale opens up about ‘very intense’ postpartum ‘anxiety’

Ashley Tisdale has admitted she tried to divorce her husband Christopher French "so many times" while battling postpartum depression.

During the first episode of French's new podcast Recovering, the High School Musical actress recalled how her struggles with postpartum depression affected their marriage following the birth of their first child Jupiter, who is now five years old.

"You dealt with a lot of that, and we had difficulty during that first year," Tisdale admitted. "I tried to divorce you so many times. But you're so grounded and calm and knew to just let it blow over."

The 41-year-old, who has been married to French since 2014, explained that she was unable to use the tools she had learned to cope with anxiety.

"I was so proud of myself for dealing with the anxiety stuff and being like, 'Okay, now I am ready to have a child because I feel like I'm equipped emotionally to be able to do that,'" she recalled. "But then I got hit with postpartum depression, which is really hormonal, and all the tools that I learned and knew how to use, you can't use."

She also revealed how her anxiety became "very intense" while she was struggling with postpartum depression and remembered "almost having a panic attack" in her car while stuck in traffic.

The actress then explained that she didn't get diagnosed with postpartum depression until Jupiter was two.

"I was like, 'What? How did you not know to tell me this?' I was just like, 'Man, that's crazy,'" she said.

Ashley Tisdale also added that she didn't have the same experience after she welcomed their daughter Emerson in September 2024.