Blue Bloods star Jennifer Esposito reveals she was locked in a psych ward during yearslong health battle
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Jennifer Esposito has revealed she was locked up in a hospital psychiatric ward while struggling with a debilitating health crisis.
The actress, 53, who was once married to Bradley Cooper, told Maria Menounos on her Heal Squad podcast that she started experiencing a myriad of symptoms in her twenties as her career began to take off.
‘I had a whole life beginning in the city, and I was a young actor and I had to stop everything,’ the Blue Bloods star explained.
She shared that she became ‘deeply depressed’ and had ‘thoughts of suicide.’ At one point she was locked up in a hospital psychiatric ward for ‘seven of the most excruciating hours of my entire life.’
Ultimately, she was diagnosed with celiac disease but not before the physical and mental toll of her illness had affected her work.
While starring on the ABC comedy Samantha Who?, which ran from 2007 to 2009, Esposito said her hair started falling out and her nails fell off.
Blue Bloods star Jennifer Esposito has revealed she was locked up in a hospital psychiatric ward while struggling with a debilitating health crisis. Above, in LA in 2024
The actress, 53, told Maria Menounos on her Heal Squad podcast that she started experiencing a myriad of symptoms in her twenties as her career began to take off and it took years to finally receive a diagnosis of what was wrong
‘A tooth fell out of my mouth, like literally in the middle of a scene,’ she recalled on the podcast that dropped Tuesday. ‘I was mortified but also had been so ill that I just… I went hysterical. Like, somebody has to help me.’
While working on the CBS drama Blue Bloods, which she joined in 2010, Esposito finally got the news she had been waiting for.
She was driving her car in Los Angeles wondering if her panic disorders, depression and feeling sick all the time just meant she was ‘crazy’ when a large piece of wood smashed through her windshield.
Esposito explained that she took the accident as a sign to keep going in her search for answers to what was ailing her.
Two days later, a doctor called to tell her that she had celiac disease and that it was so severe her liver was failing.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Esposito’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Esposito, who was briefly married to Bradley Cooper (pictured in 2007), explained the toll her health issues took on her: ‘I had a whole life beginning in the city, and I was a young actor and I had to stop everything’
Esposito shared that while working on the ABC sitcom Samantha Who? with Christina Applegate, she started to lose her hair and nails and she had a tooth fall out while on set
She became ‘deeply depressed’ and had ‘thoughts of suicide.’ At one point she was locked up in a hospital psychiatric ward for ‘seven of the most excruciating hours of my entire life.’
Esposito, who joined the cast of CBS drama Blue Bloods in 2012, was finally diagnosed with celiac disease and went public with the news in 2011
Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition in which the body reacts negatively to gluten that’s found in foods containing wheat, barley or rye.
The only treatment is to follow a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet, according to celiac.org.
Esposito was prescribed medication to aid in the healing process but the effects of it left her feeling like ‘a trembling mess.’
At one point during an office visit with her doctor, she expressed her frustration by asking to be hospitalized because things were so bad she ‘was going to jump out the window.’
The perceived threat to self-harm caused the doctor to put her in a psych ward from which she was hours later released into the custody of her father.
The Brooklyn native went public with her diagnosis in 2011 and has dramatically changed her life as part of her healing process.
‘Celiac disease saved my life. One hundred percent,’ she said on the Heal Squad podcast, adding that had a diagnosis not come her way, ‘I would have been somewhere not good.’
If you or someone you know needs help in the US, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide Crisis Lifeline at 988. If you are in the UK, call Samaritans at 116 123 for free. If you are in Australia, call Lifeline 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800.