Brooke Shields gives birth to daughter

updated 8:39 a.m. ET April 19, 2006

LOS ANGELES - It’s a girl — again — for Brooke Shields.

The actress gave birth Tuesday to Grier Hammond Henchy, who weighed 7 pounds, spokeswoman Pat Kingsley said.

Shields, 40, and husband Chris Henchy, a 42-year-old television writer and producer, also have a daughter, Rowan, who turns 3 next month. They have been married since 2001.

The birth came the same day that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes welcomed the arrival of daughter Suri.

Shields and Cruise had a public spat last year after the “Mission: Impossible” star criticized the actress for taking antidepressants after the birth of her first child.

NBC VIDEO Dual celebrity babies April 19: Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields and Hammond Henchy both have their baby girls on the same day -- and in the same hospital. NBC's Keith Morrison reports. Today show

Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, Cruise said there was no such thing as chemical imbalances that needed to be corrected with drugs, and that depression could be treated with exercise and vitamins.

Shields called the remarks “a disservice to mothers everywhere” and said the drugs helped her survive feelings of hopelessness after the birth in 2003.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression,” she wrote in an op-ed piece in The New York Times last July.

Shields said that at the lowest point of her depression she considered swallowing pills or jumping out a window. A doctor attributed her feelings to a plunge in estrogen and progesterone levels and prescribed Paxil.

Shields chronicled her experiences in “Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.”

Shields, who began modeling as a toddler, has appeared in films including “Pretty Baby,” “The Blue Lagoon” and “Endless Love.” Her TV sitcom, “Suddenly Susan,” ran from 1996-2000.

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