Hailey Bieber has been an open book when it comes to the joy of motherhood, but she has also been very frank about some of the challenges of raising son Jack Blues with husband Justin Bieber. In a new interview with Women’s Wear Daily, the 29-year-old model and founder of Rhode cosmetics talked about her struggle with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe, hormonally driven mood disorder that is a more intense form of premenstrual syndrome.
“After I had my son, I struggled with [PMDD] a bit, and there’s just not a lot of conversation or research around it,” said Bieber.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, PMDD is a severe and chronic health condition whose symptoms start the week before menstruation and can include depressed mood and feelings of hopelessness, increased anxiety, mood swings, self-critical thoughts, sudden tearfulness, increased irritability and concentration problems, among others.
Bieber said that during her pregnancy and after Jack Blues’ birth she experienced very intense emotional symptoms that made her realize that there is not enough conversation or research about a number of health issues women face.
“Especially after having my own child. That was just a really intense and special journey that I had,” she said. “There’s so much that happens when you are pregnant, during childbirth. There’s so many things that happen leading up to having a child.” Bieber said she kept having PMDD symptoms postpartum and after Jack’s birth, “I struggled with that a bit, and there’s just not a lot of conversation or research around it.”
Bieber, who has spoken about her PMDD struggles before, said speaking in public about it makes her feel “less alone,” and she hopes that it might lead to more open conversations among women in order to make it feel like “less of a lonely journey” for others. As a result of her experience, Rhode recently announced a $5 million, three-year partnership with the Foundation for Women’s Health to support medical research, education and care in areas typically underfunded.
Hailey and Justin welcomed Jack in August 2024 and back in March she first opened up about her PMDD diagnosis on the SHE MD podcast, where she said she’d been diagnosed with the disorder six months after giving birth.
“I was like, ‘This just feels way more intense than before,’ like the lead-up to getting your period,” she said in the previous interview of the emotional tumult she felt after Jack’s birth, which she described as much different from the PMS she’d experienced before. “You’re like, ‘Why does it feel like my whole entire life is gonna end? Like, I don’t understand.’ You just have all these swirling thoughts and feelings, and just everything feels like the biggest deal in the world.”
Bieber also explained that once her period began some of those more intense feelings began to recede and improve with time. In 2022, Beiber was hospitalized for a ministroke and then subsequently had a successful procedure to close a small hole in her heart.
