“The Talk” co-host Sheryl Underwood decided to talk about her own incontinence during a Depend commercial that aired in the middle of the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast on NBC on Monday.
“I am one of the hosts of a top-rated talk show and I wear Depend because I had bladder leakage after having a hysterectomy and I’m going to have to live like this for the rest of my life,” Underwood said during the commercial (above). “When you’re in the entertainment business, there’s a lot of pressure on being glamourous… but nobody ever says, ‘What are you going to do if you have bladder leakage?’”
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The commercial — part of the company’s “underwareness” campaign — has been available online since last week. But with only 1,100 views as of Monday evening, Underwood’s struggle with “bladder leakage” was just revealed to millions watching the Emmys.
“There’s no name on this. There’s no face on this. Anyone can suffer from bladder leakage, but if there’s somebody like me that comes out and says, ‘Hey, I’m going through this, you don’t have to do this alone,’” Underwood continued. “That’s what underawareness is all about.”
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According to the National Association for Continence (NAFC), urinary incontinence is a “stigmatized, underreported, under-diagnosed, under-treated condition that is erroneously thought to be a normal part of aging,” and affects 200 million people worldwide.
Underwood is not the first Hollywood figure to open up about bladder control issues. Actress Helena Bonham Carter said that she suffered from the condition after giving birth to her second child, and Samuel L. Jackson has talked about it in the past, as well.
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“At first I was really fucking upset, but then I realized that this was a problem that millions of Americans dealt with every day,” Jackson said. “I decided to nut up and get on with my life.”