Naomi Watts said revealing she has reached menopause at 36 would end her Hollywood career, and even drawing attention to her age would be “career suicide.”
Hollywood actress Naomi Watts has warned that her career will be over if she reveals she is menopausal.
The British-born star, who began experiencing symptoms aged just 36, was told that even drawing attention to her age would be tantamount to “career suicide”.
But now, 56, Watts has spoken out about her experience with menopause in a new book that aims to challenge the stigma older women face in Hollywood.
“I was told that I would never work again if I admitted I was menopausal, or even perimenopausal,” the King Kong actress wrote in her book Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I Knew About Menopause.
“The nice term Hollywood gave to these women was ‘incapable.’ I’ve been warned since I started acting that drawing attention to your age — when that’s not 23 or younger — would be career suicide.
Ms. Watts discovered that the hot flashes and night sweats she had been experiencing for years were signs of early menopause only after visiting her doctor to find out why she could not get pregnant.
“You look like you’re about to hit menopause,” my doctor said to me when I was 36, and wondered why I was having so much trouble getting pregnant. “I almost fell off the exam table,” she says in the book, an excerpt of which was published in The Times.
‘”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 mother. Take it back!”
The British-born star, who began experiencing symptoms aged just 36, was told that even drawing attention to her age would be tantamount to “career suicide”. Photo: in 2005
But now, 56, Watts has spoken out about her experience with menopause in a new book that aims to challenge the stigma older women face in Hollywood. Pictured: Ms. Watts last week at the Golden Globe Awards
“I was told I would never work again if I admitted I was menopausal, or even perimenopausal,” Watts says. Pictured: With her husband, actor Billy Crudup
Ms. Watts decided to write the book after realizing that “there is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants.”
“One of the funniest things that’s happened as a result is that random celebrities have been texting me regularly to tell me they’re going through menopause,” Ms Watts adds.
“It’s as if I’m behind a confessional window or I’m Hollywood’s sore aunt.” I wanted information about menopause, and certainly no one in Hollywood was saying a word about it.
“We were all acting as if between the seductress years and the granny roles, women just…I don’t know, disappeared?”
