She was once a Playmate, a star on a reality TV show and is now married to a hunky American football star.

But former stripper Kendra Wilkinson, 26, the mother of 21-month-old Hank Jr, has admitted that she suffered from post-natal depression, reported Britain's Daily Mail.

She details her battle in her new book, Being Kendra: Cribs, Cocktails, and Getting My Sexy Back. Wilkinson was one of Playboy boss Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends featured in reality show Girls Next Door.

She has another reality TV show, Kendra.

Her first book, Sliding Into Home, was a New York Times best-seller. In it, she relives her childhood and teenage years that were wasted on drugs and describes how she got into the Playboy Mansion.

Wilkinson, who is married to American football star Hank Baskett, writes about her post-natal blues: "It got pretty bad, (but) not to the point where I would harm my family. I was a great mum and did what I needed to, but I was definitely very depressed."

She added that motherhood is a "big change in life and it happened overnight".

She continued: "After giving birth, I never brushed my hair, my teeth, or took a shower. I looked in the mirror one day and was really depressed.

"I thought, 'Look at me!' I had this glamorous life in LA, and now (in Indianapolis), I didn't. A couple of times, I even said, 'I just have nothing to live for.'"

The model did not just suffer from extreme mood swings, she also experienced bouts of screaming, extreme jealousy and emotional detachment.

She said that after the birth, she was doing whatever she could for the baby. In the process, she lost herself. She admitted that it was really frustrating.

Wilkinson said her inexperience with infants probably contributed to her depression.

She told Huffington Post: "I'd never taken care of a baby, I'd never even held a baby or changed a diaper until my son, baby Hank. I never even knew one rule or one thing to do. I really went on instincts."

She said she hopes that the candid confessions in her book will help other young mums who are going through something similar.

"I think it's important to talk about (it) because nobody really talked about it - I didn't know I was going to get that depressed.

"I would always hear about post-partum (blues) but I never really believed it was true. There were times I couldn't handle what I was going through. I snapped a couple times, but I never put my baby in danger. Whenever he would take a nap, I would take it all out and cry."

She added: "You can't really control what you feel inside after you have a baby."

It didn't help that she was living her life in the full glare of the media. "Being in the spotlight is a lot of pressure about losing weight, (especially) coming from the Playboy world.

"Now that I have my body back and I feel good again, I have the perfect amount of balance.

"It's all about finding the balance."

Wilkinson is not alone. About 10 per cent of new mothers suffer from post-natal depression.

The most outspoken celebrity mother who suffered from baby blues is Brooke Shields. She even wrote a book about it in 2005.

Actress Angelina Jolie is said to have gone through some ups and downs after the birth of her twins in 2008.

Sources close to the family said that her mood swings have been hard on the entire family. Gwyneth Paltrow also suffered from depression after the birth of her second child, Moses, in 2006.

This article was first published in The New Paper.