Naomi Watts She was 36 years old when she saw a turnaround in her acting career after receiving an Academy Award nomination 21 grams In 2004. She was also in menopause.
“I've been warned since I started acting that drawing attention to your age — when that's not 23 or under — would be career suicide. I was told that I would never work again if I admitted I was menopausal, or even on the menstrual cycle.” About menopause Hollywood's nice term for these women was “incapable,” Watts, now 56, writes in an excerpt from her new book: Dare I say it: everything I wish I knew about menopauseI posted it Sunday Times On Friday, January 10th.
the King Kong The star explains that she started out in Hollywood later than she originally planned, and was trying to have a baby with her then-partner. Liev Schreiber When doctors told her that she had entered early menopause.
“I almost fell off the exam table,” she wrote in the book, which was released on January 21. “What do you mean?” I said gasping for air. 'Close to menopause?' This is for grandmothers. I'm not even a mother yet. And by the way, that's what I'm here for, to be a mom. Take it back! I was trying to joke, but in reality I was begging him to make it untrue. “I was very afraid that this would be the end of my dream of having children.”
Watts and Schreiber's ex, 57, eventually Welcome the children Sasha, 17, and Kai, 16, but news of her early menopause has affected the actress – both physically and mentally – for years.
Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup have continued to build a strong foundation in their romantic relationship over the years. The couple met in 2017, one year after Watts and Liev Schreiber ended their 11-year relationship. The former couple share sons Sasha and Kai. At the time, Watts spoke about where she stood with Schreiber. “I'm single. I'm co-parenting,” she (…)
“As I sat there stunned and full of self-accusation, I remembered that my mother had once mentioned that she had reached menopause at 45 — but 45 was still a long way from 36. And frankly, I didn't even really know what menopause meant,” she says. “Except that my acting career, which started much later than most, is very likely to end.” “When I reached my early 30s, people started telling me that there would soon come a time when I wouldn’t be able to play a role.” Leading lady anymore. Was this the ending that was predicted? “
Since then, Watts has starred in popular films such as… Impossible (2012) and Birdman (2014) and booked prominent roles in TV series such as Good-bye (2017), observer (2022) and Feud: Capote vs. Pelicans (2024). But she insists it's likely because actresses find motivation to stand up for themselves in an industry that has historically demonized or excluded older women.
Naomi Watts
Cover images“I came to realize that we women can assert ourselves. “I also came to believe that there is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants,” Watts wrote in her book. “All good relationships at work and at home—and in the doctor’s office—require communication.”
She is now a spokesperson for older actresses who also fear that menopause will halt their careers. “I was craving information about menopause, and certainly no one in Hollywood was uttering a word about it,” she writes. “We were all acting as if between the seductress years and the granny roles, women just…I don't know, disappeared?”
She continues: “I've always refrained from jumping on the platform. But talking about menopause requires us to be honest, loud, and dare I say it, even if in a somewhat unfeminine way.” One of the funniest things that happened as a result: Celebrities became Random people text me regularly to tell me they are going through menopause. It's as if I'm behind a confessional window or I'm Hollywood's sore aunt. But I enjoy it.”
Watts founded her company, Beauty stripesin October 2022 to “meet the different practical needs of women my age” — including intimacy. She's opening up about what her budding relationship with her husband is like now Billy Crudup She changed her perspective on aging and sex in her book.
“I was able to openly share how I was feeling with him even though it didn't match what I thought was appropriate for a hot new girlfriend,” Watts wrote, admitting that she and Crudup, 56, discussed her hormone patches and “gray hairs on his balls.”
“He was compassionate, not squeamish or awkward,” Watts shares Gypsies costar, Whom she married in 2023. “That was a great gift. My hormone patches never got in the way of having sex again.
