Actress Alyssa Milano has detailed her stay in a psychiatric ward for debilitating postpartum anxiety amid the high-profile Massachusetts murder trial of Lindsay Clancy.
Milano, 53, took to her Substack newsletter this week to repost an essay she originally penned for TIME Magazine in 2018 about her maternal mental health struggles.
Re-sharing the essay, the Charmed star explained that she felt compelled to speak out as the ongoing trial of Clancy forces a national conversation around postpartum mental illness and what happens when women asking for help fall through the cracks.
"As the Lindsay Clancy trial forces a new national reckoning with postpartum mental illness and with what can happen when women ask for help but still fall through the cracks, it feels important to share it again," Milano wrote.
Milano stressed that her personal struggles were distinct from those involved in the criminal case, writing: "Postpartum anxiety and postpartum psychosis are different conditions, and my experience is not Lindsay Clancy's."
"But the trial has brought renewed attention to a truth that connects them: maternal mental-health symptoms must be recognized, believed and treated with urgency," she added.
National Reckoning Over Postpartum Illness
Milano is an American actress who rose to prominence as a child star on the television sitcom Who's the Boss? before starring as Phoebe Halliwell in the WB supernatural drama series Charmed. She shares two children with her husband, talent agent David Bugliari.
In her 2018 essay, Milano shared that her postpartum depression was most likely triggered by Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She became pregnant with her first child, Milo, now 14, back in 2011, two years after suffering a miscarriage.
The actress delivered her son via C-section and recalled experiencing her first anxiety attack on her very first night home from the hospital. She explained that she felt as though she had already disappointed her child and "failed as a mother" due to having Milo via C-section and being unable to produce milk at the time.
Describing the physical severity of the episode, Milano wrote: "My heart raced. My stomach seized up. I felt like I was dying."
Panic Attacks And ER Visit
When Milano returned to work, she admitted to being "overwhelmed by guilt for leaving my son." She added: "And like many others who suffer from anxiety, my pain was not taken seriously."
While travelling to work, Milano recalled that she would "think about all the ways that Milo could die in the hands of his caretakers."
"Every night, after working 16-hour days, after I was finally able to hold my child and put him to sleep, my day's anxiety would culminate into a debilitating anxiety attack," Milano wrote.
One night at 2:00 AM, Milano went to the emergency room, asked for a psychiatrist, and received help. She explained that she felt as though she had no choice, asking to be committed and staying in a public psychiatric ward for three days.
Milano stated that the journey to having her pain recognized was not easy, but she praised her psychiatrist and therapist as "angels." Reflecting on treatment access, she wrote: "I was lucky enough to have the means and the insurance to get the help and support I needed. What happens to those mothers who don't have the kind of support I received?"
The Daily Mail reached out to a representative for Milano for comment, but has not yet received a response.
The Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial
The trial that prompted Milano to repost her essay involves Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse accused of murdering her three children: Cora, five; Dawson, three; and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Massachusetts in 2023.
Clancy has admitted to killing her children but has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, seeking to be committed to a state mental health facility instead of prison. Her defense team argues she suffered from postpartum psychosis and did not know the consequences of her actions, while prosecutors claim she planned the 2023 killings and contrived to get her husband Patrick out of the house to carry them out.
Following the deaths of her children, Clancy allegedly attempted to kill herself, leaving her paralyzed and using a wheelchair for life. Female supporters wearing shades of pink stood outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, this week in solidarity.
"The healthcare failed her, and that's just tragic. We're both mothers and both experienced postpartum anxiety and depression," one supporter told the Daily Mail. "It's scary to speak out. You don't want to get judged and you don't want somebody to take your child."
Closing arguments in the Clancy trial are expected to begin on Monday.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988, or visit the online chat at 988lifeline.org.
