JESS & NORM ‘OUR SECRET HEARTACHE’
The popular Block contestants open up about their battle with postnatal depression
She’s the bubbly Blockhead who quickly won over the hearts of the nation with her husband Norm, but behind Jess’ infectious smile is a tale riddled with sadness.
The Queenslander battled postnatal depression (PND) after the birth of the couple’s first child, Freddie – and things got so bad, Jess, 33, says she wanted to die.
“I didn’t know anything was wrong,” she tells Woman’s Day. “I just thought I was a terrible person and a bad mother.
“I was watching the news and there’d been a fatal car crash. I was jealous. That’s the sort of emotion I felt at the time.
“It’s such a horrible thing to go through. I was so mean to Norm and called him horrible things, but I was screaming for help and didn’t realise it.
“How Norm didn’t leave me, I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me if a marriage broke down over undiagnosed postnatal depression.”
But her loving builder husband was powerless to help p as Jess fell into the depths of depression. He didn’t know what to do to make his usually upbeat radio-show-host partner better.
“It was hard,” Norm, 40, says. . “I could see something wasn’t right but I didn’t know how to fix it. I’m not an overly affectionate person, so for me to actually say something was a huge thing.”
It wasn’t until Jess confessed all in emotional posts on her blog that a concerned follower suggested gg she might g have PND.
“I didn’t believe it but I went along to speak to somebody because I had nothing to lose. Life was sh*t,” Jess admits.
“You don’t have to feel like that, and you don’t deserve to feel like that. It can hit anyone at any time”.
Fortunately, she got through that terrible time and now Jess and Norm are the happiest of parents and were thrilled to welcome a little girl, Matilda, into the world two years later.
“I was so anxious about having my second but luckily it was fine,” Jess says.
“As a couple, post-natal depression is the toughest thing g we’ve dealt with.”
‘I was so mean to Norm and called him horrible things’