Naomi Watts Was "Warned" Revealing Early Menopause Would Make Her Seem "Unf--kable" and She'd "Never Work Again"
"I didn't even really know what menopause meant—except very likely the conclusion of my acting career, which got under way far later than most."
In recent years, two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts has been candid about her experience with menopause. In her new book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause, Watts reveals that she was "warned" to never publicly reveal her early menopause as it would damage her acting career.
"I'd been warned ever since I started acting that calling attention to your age—when that age was not 23 or younger—would be career suicide," Watts wrote in her new book, an excerpt from which was published by The Sunday Times. "I was told I would never work again if I admitted to being menopausal, or even perimenopausal. Hollywood's lovely term for such women was 'unf--kable.'"
Watts discovered that she had started menopause early while trying to have a baby with her ex, Liev Schreiber. The couple were together for 11 years, and welcomed two children, before splitting in 2016.
"I almost fell off the examination table," Watts explained in her new book. "'What do you mean?' I said, gasping for air. 'Close to menopause? That's for grandmothers. I'm not even a mother yet. And, by the way, that's what I'm here for, to become a mother. Take it back!'" Watts continued, "I was trying to joke, but really I was begging him to make it not be true. I was so scared that this would be the end of my dream to bear children."
Naomi Watts found out she was in early menopause when trying to conceive her first baby at age 36.
The unexpected news made the King Kong star reflect on her mom's menopause journey. "As I sat there stunned and full of self-recrimination, I remembered that my mother had once mentioned she'd hit menopause at 45—but 45 still felt very far away from 36," Watts wrote. "And, frankly, I didn't even really know what menopause meant—except very likely the conclusion of my acting career, which got under way far later than most."
Watts's big break came in 2001, the year she turned 33, with the release of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.
"When I'd hit my early thirties, people had started telling me that the time would soon come when I wouldn't be able to play a leading lady any more," the actress explained. "Was this the end that had been foretold?"
Naomi Watts worried that her acting career would come to an end just as she was getting recognized.
Watts has since realized that life doesn't need to end for women when perimenopause begins, and that includes challenging Hollywood's ageist ideas.
"I've always shied away from jumping on the soapbox," the Feud: Capote vs. the Swans star explained. "But the menopause conversation requires us to get honest, loud and, dare I say it, even a little unladylike."
Rather than limiting her career, embracing menopause has allowed Watts to connect with other people who are experiencing the same thing. "One of the funniest things that's happened as a result: random celebrities now text me regularly to tell me they're in menopause," she wrote. "It's like I'm behind the confessional window or I’m Hollywood's agony aunt. But I enjoy it."
And according to Watts, husband Billy Crudup has been nothing but supportive. "He was compassionate, not squeamish or awkward," Watts said of the actor, with whom she starred in Netflix series Gypsy. "That was a great gift. My hormone patches never got in the way of sex again."
