Jeannie Mai, reality TV star and “Dancing With the Stars” alum, is opening up about her experience since giving birth to her daughter, Monaco Mai Jenkins.
Mai opened up to ET Online about her experience being pregnant and postpartum, and she shared that she had postpartum anxiety.
“I honestly can say the whole time I was pregnant I was nervous because I was like I almost feel like I don’t deserve this beautiful privilege,” she shared. “I honestly got a lot of anxiety because I thought, for somebody who said their whole life that they didn’t wanna be a mom and here this gift was being given to me, I felt like, ‘Don’t put yourself in risky situations, like don’t get on a plane or — you are the one to have this taken away from you because you didn’t appreciate it when you had the choice.”
Mai Is ‘Beyond Grateful’ For Motherhood
Mai shared that she now feels extremely grateful for being a mother.
“So now, I am beyond grateful,” Mai said. “Because I cannot believe, as every parent can tell you, how much a child changes your life. And I like myself better, I like myself better as a mom.”
She added, “I love being a mom. I am so touched with the gift of getting her to open her arms…teaching her to register communication with me, it’s everything.”
Mai said she went through a lot, but her time postpartum was “treacherous.”
“Nobody told me about postpartum anxiety,” she said, per ET Online. “I was happy being a mom, I was excited, but I was intensely worried.”
She added, “The day Monaco was born, I freaked out. I shut everything down. We were like, ‘No cameras, no nothing!’ Because I was so afraid of the internet and the people.”
She also shared that she had a hard time sleeping afterward, but she has since seen a psychologist and connected with fellow parents.
Mai Had to Pull Out of ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Mai was partnered with professional dancer Brandon Armstrong during season 29 of “Dancing With the Stars,” and she had to pull out at the height of the season due to health concerns.
During an episode of her show “Hello Hunnay with Jeannie Mai,” Mai spoke about how she “almost” died during the season.
In a new episode of “Hello Hunnay,” Mai and Armstrong talked about what led up to her health concerns and throat surgery when she had to pull out of the ballroom competition.
“Some of you may have heard that I recently got really sick,” Mai started after making joking references to The Little Mermaid. “I saw a doctor who correctly diagnosed me and saved me from possibly losing my ability to breathe. I’m going to be honest with you. Even when I was diagnosed, I did not take it seriously.”
She continued, “I was not focused on saving my life, I was focused on competing in Dancing With the Stars.”
“The next day, of course I stayed consistent and rescheduled the rehearsal with Brandon,” she said. “I was almost dying in that room, but I didn’t know it because I was pushing through and hyped up on steroids.”
It was days before she got the advice from Armstrong to stop taking steroid shots who had once torn his Achilles after taking a steroid shot for pain.
“My throat was 60% closed,” Mai shared. “It was numb, but it was closed.”
After visiting the doctor, she found out that she was going to have to have surgery.
“I called Brandon and was so upset,” she said. “Was absolutely enraged in tears, like, ‘They’re making me do this, I’m so sorry.’”
“Dancing With the Stars” will return in the fall of 2022 in a new home. The show will now air live exclusively on Disney+ instead of on ABC.
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