Naomi Watts was 36 years old when her acting career reached a turning point, earning her an Oscar nomination for 21 Grams in 2004. At the same time, she was grappling with an unexpected life change: menopause.
“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. 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—able,’” Watts, now 56, shares in an excerpt from her new book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause, published by The Sunday Times on Friday, January 10.
The King Kong actress recounts how she began her Hollywood journey later than she had originally envisioned and was actively trying to start a family with her then-partner, Liev Schreiber, when doctors informed her she was entering early menopause.
“I almost fell off the examination table,” she writes in her memoir, set to release on January 21. “‘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!’ 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.”
Watts and Schreiber, 57, ultimately became parents to Sasha, now 17, and Kai, 16. Yet, the revelation of early menopause left a lasting impact on Watts, both physically and emotionally.
Facing the Stigma
“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.
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,” she explains.
“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 anymore. Was this the end that had been foretold?”
Despite these fears, Watts continued to thrive in her career, earning acclaim for films like The Impossible (2012) and Birdman (2014) while taking on notable TV roles in Gypsy (2017), The Watcher (2022), and Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (2024). She attributes her resilience to women in the industry pushing for greater representation and recognition.
Naomi Watts (Photo: Getty Images)
“I’ve come to realise that we women can assert ourselves. I’ve also come to believe that there is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants,” Watts writes. “All good relationships at work and at home — and at the doctor’s office — require communication.”
Advocating for Change
Now, Watts uses her platform to advocate for older actresses navigating menopause and the challenges it can bring to their careers.
“I was craving information on menopause, and certainly no one in Hollywood was breathing a word about it,” she shares. “We were all behaving as if between the seductress years and the grandmother roles, women just… I don’t know, vanished?”
She emphasizes the importance of fostering open conversations about menopause. “I’ve always shied away from jumping on the soapbox. But the menopause conversation requires us to get honest, loud and, dare I say it, even a little unladylike,” she says.
“One of the funniest things that’s happened as a result: random celebrities now text me regularly to tell me they’re in menopause. It’s like I’m behind the confessional window or I’m Hollywood’s agony aunt. But I enjoy it.”
Personal Growth and Empowerment
Watts founded her company, Stripes Beauty, in October 2022 to address the needs of women experiencing menopause, including intimacy challenges. In her book, she reflects on how her relationship with her husband, Billy Crudup, helped shift her perspective on aging and sexuality.
“I was able to share with him honestly what I was experiencing even though it didn’t match with what I thought was appropriate for a sexy new girlfriend,” Watts writes. She candidly recalls discussing hormone patches and the “grey hairs on [his] balls” with Crudup, 56.
“He was compassionate, not squeamish or awkward,” Watts says of her Gypsy co-star, whom she married in 2023. “That was a great gift. My hormone patches never got in the way of sex again.”
As Watts continues to challenge the stigmas surrounding aging and menopause, she inspires other women to embrace their journey and stand up for themselves, both in Hollywood and beyond.
