Kendra Wilkinson Admits She Needed ‘Intense Healing’ After Her Divorce Triggered A Deep Depression

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During the Jun. 22 episode of Melissa Gorga‘s On Display podcast, The Girls Next Door alum Kendra Wilkinson, 38, opened up about her mental health struggles following her divorce from Hank Baskett, 40. “We had a great marriage, but now we are great co-parents. You know, of course, nobody really signs up for a marriage to get divorced,” Kendra, who shares Alijah Mary, 9, and son Hank Jr., 12, with her ex, said. “And that wasn’t really the part of my depression I went through for like four to five years. Divorce was –  just triggered my depression.”

On the heels of their split, the 38-year-old’s decade on reality TV was also coming to an end, adding more for her to grieve. “So I went through a divorce, lost everything I knew, which was my TV show. I had a TV show every year until my divorce and then my divorce happened,” she went on to explain to the RHONJ star. “And all of a sudden now I’m left with no marriage. I’m left with no show. I had to move into a little house. I didn’t understand what was going on right… and all of a sudden I had to do some intense healing.”

Later, the Kendra on Top alum went on to reveal why she ended up pursing her current career in real estate. “For years, I didn’t have fame. I didn’t have everything I knew for a really long time. I don’t know who I was,” she shared. “I was like, so lost and I had to do some serious healing like to the point where I do like, oof, then that’s how I chose real estate was because I had to figure it out and put faith in something again, put faith in life, and I chose real estate, not even knowing a camera would even turn on again.” Her latest series, Kendra Sells Hollywood, premiered in 2021 and is currently on its second season.

Kendra and the former athlete got married in 2009, at the height of her reality TV success. The former lovebirds went on to have several shows together including Kendra and Kendra on Top. By 2014, their marriage began to crumble after reports claimed that Hank cheated on Kendra, which they openly discussed on the show Marriage Boot Camp. They finalized their divorce in 2018. While chatting with Melissa on Thurs., Kendra attributed her motivation in life to her beautiful children.

“All while being a mother, don’t forget you still have kids. I wasn’t really. It was impossible to be happy at that point. I didn’t even know how to be happy,” she went on. “All my kids were. What were my kids? Gave me the purpose to try to stay alive, to keep going, to drive them to hockey and basketball and smile and watch them do everything school. They they’re the ones who kept my heart beating, right? Right.” Her real estate series, Kendra Sells Hollywood, first premiered on Discovery+, and is now streaming on Max.