Jennifer Lawrence opens up about postpartum: ‘It’s extremely isolating’
JB Lacroix/FilmMagic
Jennifer Lawrence is getting candid about the challenges of postpartum and motherhood while promoting her new film Die My Love at the Cannes Film Festival.
During a press conference for the upcoming thriller, which follows a new mother’s descent into madness, the Oscar winner reflected on how the role hit close to home.
“As a mother, it was really hard to separate what I would do as opposed to what she would do. And it was just heartbreaking,” she said, according to Variety. “I had just had my firstborn, and there’s not really anything like postpartum. It’s extremely isolating, which is so interesting.”
Lawrence drew parallels between her own experience and that of the film’s main character.
“When [director] Lynne [Ramsay] moves this couple into Montana, she doesn’t have a community,” she continued. “She doesn’t have her people. But the truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.”
Postpartum depression affects as many as one in eight women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause symptoms such as withdrawal from loved ones, excessive crying, anxiety, anger, self-doubt and intrusive thoughts. Unlike the common “baby blues,” postpartum depression can last for weeks or months and is more intense.
Die My Love, which also stars Robert Pattinson as Lawrence’s overwhelmed husband, had its world premiere at Cannes. Based on Ariana Harwicz‘s 2017 novel of the same name, the film centers on a new mother’s spiral into psychosis following postpartum depression, which strains her mental health and marriage.
Lawrence, who shares two children with husband Cooke Maroney, revealed she was five months pregnant with her second child while filming.
ABC News has reached out to Lawrence’s team for additional comment.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in a scene from the movie, ‘It Ends With Us.’ Sony Pictures
The ongoing legal dispute between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni escalated Tuesday over Lively’s decision to withdraw claims of emotional distress from her lawsuit.
Lively will not be able to refile the claims — included in the lawsuit she originally filed against Baldoni in late December — back into the lawsuit in the future, according to a ruling issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman.
Liman also ruled that Lively does not have to provide her medical records to the court following the withdrawal of the claims of emotional distress.
“The parties shall stipulate to whether the dismissal is with or without prejudice, or Lively shall renew her request by formal motion,” Liman wrote in his ruling. “For avoidance of doubt, if the claims are not dismissed, the Court will preclude Lively from offering any evidence of emotional distress.”
In her original lawsuit, Lively claimed she experienced “severe emotional distress” after Baldoni and key stakeholders in It Ends With Us allegedly sexually harassed her and allegedly attempted, along with Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, to orchestrate a smear campaign against her.
On Monday, lawyers for Baldoni and Wayfarer filed a motion to compel Lively to provide her medical and mental health care records, in order to prove she experienced distress, according to court filings seen by ABC News. Baldoni’s lawyers asked for the emotional distress claims to be dismissed with prejudice so they cannot be refiled at a later time.
“By alleging that she suffered physical and emotional injuries, Ms. Lively has placed her physical and mental condition at issue and, in turn, must produce relevant information and documents,” the court filings state.
Lively’s legal team responded with a letter to the judge Monday asking for the motion to be dropped, calling it a “public relations stunt.”
Lively’s lawyers, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, told ABC News in a statement Tuesday, after the judge’s ruling, that the actress will “continue to pursue emotional distress damages through other claims in her lawsuit.”
“The court denied Wayfarer’s motion. He told the parties to continue their discussions about the technicalities of how 2 of the 15 claims will be voluntarily dismissed. Ms. Lively has offered to dismiss those claims because they are no longer necessary, and she will continue to pursue emotional distress damages through other claims in her lawsuit, including sexual harassment and retaliation,” Hudson and Gottlieb said. “In addition, the Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive damages under California law. This is exactly where both parties were before the Baldoni-Wayfarer Parties rushed to file this utterly pointless motion to compel, all searching for yet another press moment.”
Baldoni’s legal team had no additional comment on the judge’s ruling when reached by ABC News.
Lively and Baldoni’s legal feud began after Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us, which he also directed.
Baldoni denied the allegations at the time in a statement issued through his attorney BryanFreedman, who called Lively’s actions “shameful” and the allegations “serious and categorically false.”
Freedman claimed that Lively’s complaint was “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film.”
Lively and Baldoni subsequently launched dueling lawsuits against each other, with Lively’s lawsuit reiterating the allegations outlined in her earlier California Civil Rights Department complaint.
Baldoni filed a civil lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s public relations company, Vision PR, in January this year, alleging, among other things, extortion and defamation.
Baldoni accused Lively of having “robbed” him and Wayfarer Studios LLC of control of It Ends with Us, which he also directed, as well as destroying Baldoni’s “personal and professional reputations and livelihood.” He accused Sloane of having gone “so far as to propagate malicious stories portraying Baldoni as a sexual predator” and Reynolds of using the term to describe Baldoni in a call with Baldoni’s agent. The suit claims Reynolds told Baldoni’s rep to “drop” him as a client.
Lively’s lawyers responded with a statement calling the lawsuit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
Lively and Baldoni are due to appear in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 9, 2026, with Liman overseeing the case.
Ahead of their court date, Lively filed an amended version of her lawsuit against Baldoni in February.
In March, Reynolds filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s complaint against him. Lively also filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s countersuit against her.
The gang is back in the official trailer for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 17.
Rob McElhenney stars alongside Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito in the trailer for the 17th season of the series.
This time around, the gang will cross over with the cast of Abbott Elementary for brand-new hijinks in an episode told from the It’s Always Sunny cast’s point of view. The gang previously appeared on an episode of Abbott Elementary‘s fourth season.
Additionally, the trailer finds DeVito’s character, Frank, starring in a season of The Golden Bachelor.
“Philadelphia: the birthplace of our nation. Could it be the birthplace of a new love?” real-life The Bachelor host Jesse Palmer says in the trailer.
We then see DeVito standing next to Palmer outside the Bachelor mansion as limos pull up carrying hopeful contestants vowing for Frank’s heart.
“Seventeen seasons on, Ronald ‘Mac’ MacDonald, Charlie Kelly, Dennis Reynolds, Dee Reynolds and Frank Reynolds return to shamelessly shed their ‘niche’ label for grander aspirations,” the season’s official description reads. “They’ll exploit cross-network promotion to increase market share; they’ll scapegoat one of their own to avoid a PR backlash; they’ll risk everything for a handshake with the Saudis; they’ll bend the laws with side hustles to pad their pockets and they’ll change everything about themselves to appeal to a broader audience.”
Season 17 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia premieres with its first two episodes July 9 on FXX. It will stream the next day on Hulu.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News, FXX and Hulu.
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