Lena Headey suffered through postnatal depression during the first year of filming her hit show Game Of Thrones.
The actress welcomed son Wylie Loughran with ex-husband Peter Loughran in 2010 – the same year she began shooting the fantasy series – and admits she felt terrible on set but pushed through until she visited the doctor and found out what was wrong with her.
“(Filming was) really horrendous – I was postnatally depressed but I didn’t know it,” she tells co-star Maisie Williams in an interview with The Edit. “I saw a doctor for the medical check, and I just burst into tears. She said I was postnatally depressed and I went, ‘Am I? Why is that?’
“I saw a great guy and he sorted me out, but I did the first year (on Game of Thrones) in that space, figuring out motherhood and going through a weird time personally,” she adds. “It was tricky.”
Lena’s personal life took another hit in 2011 when she separated from Loughran. Their divorce was finalized in 2013, after a lengthy dispute over custody and financial issues, which was only initially resolved when they struck a deal to share legal custody of Wylie.
However, last year (16), the actress became embroiled in a bitter new custody battle with her ex after she relocated to the U.K. with Wylie and her daughter Teddy. In an October (16) ruling, a Los Angeles family court judge told Lena to return her son to the U.S., but allowed her to keep him with her in the U.K. until the next period of filming finished on Game of Thrones earlier this year (17).
