Deepika Padukone praises Jemimah Rodrigues for emotional confession of battling anxiety: ‘Thank you for sharing…’

On Friday, Deepika Padukone took to Instagram Stories to give a shoutout to Jemimah Rodrigues for sharing her battle with anxiety.

Cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues proved to be the game-changer for India in their thrilling semifinal win against Australia at the Women’s World Cup 2025 in Navi Mumbai on Thursday. Following the victory, an emotional Jemimah opened up about her battle with anxiety. Now, actor Deepika Padukone has praised her for sharing her story and embracing vulnerability in the public eye.

At the moment, Jemimah Rodrigues is getting plaudits for playing a fantastic innings in the Women's World Cup 2025 semi-final.

Deepika lauds Jemimah Rodrigues

On Friday, Deepika took to Instagram Stories to give a shoutout to Jemimah for sharing the hard moments of battling anxiety and exposing her vulnerability in front of everyone.

Deepika re-shared a video featuring cricketer Jemimah where she is seen speaking candidly about her struggle with anxiety. In the clip, Jemimah expressed heartfelt gratitude to her friends and teammates for their support during her difficult times.

Reposting the video, Deepika, who has always been open about her struggle with mental health, wrote, “Thank you Jemimah Rodrigues.”

“For your vulnerability and for sharing your story (folded hand emoji),” Deepika added in her message.

Deepika's Insta Story.

What did Jemimah Rodrigues say

Jemimah, who was adjudged Player of the Match for her vital knock, got candid during the post-match interaction where she spoke about her battle with anxiety and the moments when she broke down in front of her mother and her friends. She thanked her teammates for supporting her throughout the ongoing eight-team tournament.

A visibly emotional Jemimah said, “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 mentioned that she used to cry in front of Arundhati Reddy every day, saying, “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.”

"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," said the cricketer.

She shared that things took a turn for the worse 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."

She wrapped up the conversation by expressing her gratitude to the people who believed in her.

During the match, Jemimah played an unbeaten knock of 127 off 134 balls as India registered the highest-ever chase in the history of women's ODIs, knocking down 339 with five wickets in hand and nine balls to spare. India will now take on South Africa in the summit clash on Sunday, November 2.