12 Hollywood Stars Who Battled Depression

Anne Hathaway is best known for her starring role in "The Devil Wears Prada," in which she played an assistant whose fashion editor boss was demanding and frequently downbeat. But Hathway knows from her own life what it's like to be downbeat and depressed.

She suffered from depression and anxiety in her teens, but worked through her troubles without taking medication, according to a 2007 article in People magazine. Speaking of her depressed self, she said, "I am sorry she was hurting for so long. It's all so negatively narcissistic to be so consumed with self."

Keep reading to meet 12 other stars who have battled depression.

Gwyneth Paltrow

For glamorous Gwyneth Paltrow, the 2006 birth of her son Moses led to several months of severe depression.

"I expected to have another period of euphoria following his birth, much the way I had when my daughter was born two years earlier," she wrote on her blog, Goop.com. "Instead I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life."

But she told Vogue in 2008 that she was never diagnosed with postpartum depression, according to MSNBC. "I didn't know I had it until it was over."

Owen Wilson

After starring in hit movies like "Meet the Parents" and "Wedding Crashers," life came crashing down on Owen Wilson. The tousled-haired funnyman slashed his wrists at his Santa Monica home on August 26, 2007, according to People magazine.

Friends say he had battled addiction and his own inner demons, the magazine reported, and in a 2005 interview, he himself admitted having an "Irish strain of depression."

Ashley Judd

Hollywood A-list actor and wife of Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, Ashley Judd spent years battling depression after a chaotic childhood.

In the midst of her battle with dark moods, she was sleeping a lot, cleaning compulsively, and isolating herself from friends, she told Glamour magazine in 2006. Then she spent 47 days in a Texas treatment facility. "No one had ever validated my pain before," she said. "It was so profound."

Marie Osmond

Suicide has been a persistent theme in the life of singer Marie Osmond. One of her sons attempted suicide three times before jumping to his death from the eighth-floor of his Los Angeles apartment in February of 2010, according to the New York Daily News.

And Osmond herself had thought about ending it all not long after the 1999 birth of another son, Matthew. "I'd had the baby blues before, but this was different," the paper reported. "My body was racked with hysterical crying and I began to understand for the first time, why a person would want to take their own life."

Zach Braff

Zach Braff's real life is quite a bit different from the wacky doctor he played on the hit TV series "Scrubs." Far from it, in fact. "I think I suffer from some mild depression," he told Parade magazine.

His downbeat personality was on display in his 2004 hit movie "Garden State," in which he plays a troubled young man who returns home for his mother's funeral. "To have millions of people go, 'I watched your movie and related' was the ultimate affirmation that I'm not a freak."

Jim Carrey

Star of films including "The Truman Show" and "Liar Liar," Jim Carrey hasn't shied away from telling the truth about his own depression.

Speaking on 60 Minutes in 2004, the flamboyant funnyman said, " I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever. I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that, you know, everything's just OK."

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys, the Grammy-winning singer and actress, found it hard to tell others about her battle with depression, People magazine reported in 2007.

"I was feeling so sad all the time, and I couldn't shake it," she said. "I started burying my feelings, and it got to a point where I couldn't even tell my family or my friends, 'I'm twisted,' or 'I'm exhausted,' or 'I'm so angry.' ... I became a master of putting up the wall so that I was unreadable."

Brooke Shields

Good looks, fame, and a happy marriage weren't enough to protect Brooke Shields from severe postpartum depression. Soon after the birth of her daughter in 2003 (following the death of her father and a long battle against infertility), the six-foot-tall stunner thought about ending it all.

"I really didn't want to live anymore," she told WebMD. She said she was thinking of jumping out the window until she realized she was only on the fourth floor. "You'll get broken to bits and then you will be even worse."

Actor Tom Cruise slammed Shields for taking antidepressants, but she let him have it right back. In 2005, she wrote in the New York Times, "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression."

Craig Ferguson

Before landing a gig as host of "The Late Late Show," comedian Craig Ferguson tried a lot of things, including construction work and punk rock musician, according to TV Guide. He also battled (and beat) addictions to drugs and alcohol and even attempted suicide during a particularly bleak moment.

"I was definitely confused and desperately twisted and turned upside down by whatever the hell what was going on inside my head," he said in one of his monologues, adding that he had been "self-medicating" with alcohol.

Andrew Koenig

Best known as Boner on the hit TV series "Growing Pains," Walter Koenig hanged himself at a park in Vancouver, Canada in February of 2010.

The actor - son of Walter Koenig, who played Chekov in the original "Star Trek" series - had been battling clinical depression and had gone missing after turning down several roles and clearing out his California apartment.

If there was something in particular that triggered the suicide, Koenig's father didn't know about it. According to E!, the elder Koenig wrote in his website, "I think it's something that has been a part of his makeup for a long time."

Rosie O'Donnell

Feeling bad hasn't been a sometime thing for Rosie O'Donnell. The comedienne and actress has battled depression for much of her life, and sought help with antidepressants when she was in her late thirties, according to People magazine.

Now a decade older, she still battles depression and seasonal affective disorder - with the help of meds, yoga, and inversion therapy.

Yes, she hangs upside down for 15 to 30 minutes a day.