Deepika Padukone Hails Jemimah Rodrigues For Speaking About Anxiety Battle After India’s Historic Win
Deepika Padukone praised cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues for bravely opening up about her battle with anxiety.
Cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues emerged as the game-changer for India during their nail-biting semi-final victory against Australia at the Women’s World Cup 2025 in Navi Mumbai on Thursday. Following the win, Jemimah got candid about her struggle with anxiety, moving fans with her emotional honesty. Now, Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has lauded her for sharing her story and embracing vulnerability in front of millions.
On Friday, Deepika took to her Instagram Stories to applaud Jemimah for speaking openly about her battle with anxiety and baring her vulnerable side in public. The ‘Pathaan’ actress re-shared a video of Jemimah discussing her mental health journey, in which the cricketer expressed heartfelt gratitude towards her friends and teammates for standing by her during tough times.
Deepika, who has long been vocal about her own mental health struggles, wrote a touching message on her Instagram Story: “Thank you Jemimah Rodrigues. For your vulnerability and for sharing your story.”
Check out Deepika Padukone’s Instagram Story here:
Jemimah, who was named Player of the Match for her match-winning innings, opened up during the post-match interaction about her battle with anxiety and moments when she broke down before games.
Fighting back tears, she recalled calling her mother and crying endlessly, saying, “I'll be very vulnerable here because I know if someone is watching this – might be going through the same thing and that's my whole purpose of saying it because nobody likes to talk about their weakness.”
She continued, “I was going through a lot of anxiety at the start of the tournament and it was a lot before few games also I used to call my mum and cry, cry the entire time, let it all out, because when you're going through anxiety, you just feel numb. You don't know what to do. You're trying to be yourself. And also in this time, my mum and my dad, they supported me a lot.”
Jemimah also thanked her close friend and teammate Arundhati Reddy, saying she would cry in front of her almost every day. She said, “Later, I was joking, I said, you don't come in front of me, I'll start crying. But she checked on me every single day. And there was Smriti (Mandhana), who helped me. She also knew what I was going through. A few of the net sessions, she was just standing there. Even yesterday she came. She just stood there just because - didn't say much, but she just knows that her presence is important for me.”
She went on to name Radha Yadav among those who were constantly there for her, adding, “There's been Radha (Yadav) who's always been there taking care of me. I'm so blessed to have friends I can call family, that I didn't have to go through it alone and it's OK to ask for help. And that's what happened. And my mum also, she's as emotional as I am, but she went through a lot. My family went through a lot. But everyone stood by me and believed in me when I didn't, when I couldn't.”
The cricketer also shared that her anxiety worsened when she was dropped from the team. She shared, “That really hit me. When you're dropped, you have a lot of doubts because I always want to contribute to the team. But that day I couldn't do much sitting out. And then when you come back in, it's a lot more pressure with everything that was happening in the past month.”
Jemimah concluded by expressing deep gratitude to everyone who supported her through that journey.
Her powerful words came after a stellar performance on the field, where she scored an unbeaten 127 off 134 balls, guiding India to a record-breaking chase of 339 – the highest ever in women’s ODI history. India defeated Australia by five wickets with nine balls to spare, advancing to the final against South Africa on Sunday, November 2.
