{"id":511324,"date":"2026-06-21T16:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511324\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T16:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:23:14","slug":"eastenders-star-toby-alexander-smith-shares-mental-health-struggles-in-new-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511324\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders star Toby-Alexander Smith shares mental health struggles in new interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eastenders<\/a> star Toby-Alexander Smith has opened up about his struggle with postnatal depression after welcoming his second child with wife Amy Walsh. Smith and Walsh welcomed their second daughter<\/a>, Nell, in March of this year.<\/p>\n

Speaking to MailOnline<\/a>, Smith shared that he experienced postnatal depression following Nell’s birth after learning about the symptoms through an Emmerdale<\/a> storyline involving his wife, who played Tracy Metcalfe.<\/p>\n

\"toby<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith said: “My wife Amy had actually done a postnatal depression storyline on Emmerdale when she was pregnant, and so I sort of knew all the signs to look out for in her.<\/p>\n

“And I was watching her like a hawk, only to realise that some of those same symptoms were showing up in myself.”<\/p>\n

Describing his symptoms, Smith continued: “The highs and the lows were a lot, you know. And that feeling of helplessness and guess a feeling of failure at times.<\/p>\n

“Just that overwhelm, the sheer overwhelm of not being able to cope, it really does creep up on you.”<\/p>\n

Smith went on to say that he and Walsh were able to support each other and it helped that they were both good communicators and had caught his symptoms early.<\/p>\n

The actor added: “It was only really when I sort of delved into the research of mental health, you see that there is a community of men out there who are going through the same thing.<\/p>\n

“There isn’t any kind of reference point for dads. It’s a growing community and more and more conversations are starting to happen now, which I think is amazing and, you know, so important.”<\/p>\n

Smith used his experience to write short film Finding Calm, in which he starred with Walsh, about a first-time father who becomes overwhelmed after feeling a disconnect from his newborn son. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Smith is gearing up to return to Eastenders as villain Gray Atkins. The serial killer is set to return for a cameo<\/a> on the soap soon, following the appearance last week of his grandmother Sheila.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"gray<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders icon Gillian Taylforth makes Instagram debut as co-stars celebrate<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking about how Gray may be different<\/a> this time around thanks to his time in prison, Smith told The Mirror<\/a>: “Gray was a brilliant character.<\/p>\n

“It was a gift to play Gray and it’ll be fascinating to know what four years in prison would do for someone like him.<\/p>\n

“His identity was very much, you know, control and power and very manipulative. Being in prison would very much strip a lot of that identity. So it was fascinating to tap into that psychology.”<\/p>\n

EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast. <\/p>\n

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, celebrating the global phenomenon of BTS, is here! Buy this ultimate fan guide in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eastenders star Toby-Alexander Smith has opened up about his struggle with postnatal depression after welcoming his second child…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[131124,1105,218361,1107,93,61,60,184510,1135,218360,131322],"class_list":["post-511324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-7476611a-5fed-418a-bbf6-5fffb7960257","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-eastenders-toby-alexander-smith-on-mental-health-struggles","tag-subsection-eastenders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}