Actress Naomi Watts has had an impressive career in Hollywood spanning hits like The Ring, The Impossible and King Kong, but at just 36-years-old she feared it may have all been over.
In her upcoming book Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known about Menopause, Watts, now 56, opens up about becoming perimenopausal and the abhorrent advice she received about keeping it quiet for the sake of her career.
When Watts turned 36 she began experience early symptoms like hot flashes and fatigue, revealing she knew very little about menopause “except very likely the conclusion of my acting career, which got underway far later than most.”
Already grappling with the idea of becoming menopausal as she considered falling pregnant, Watts’ reveals the impact the diagnosis would have on her career in Hollywood was also weighing on her mind.
“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’,” she says in the novel via The Times.
Perimenopausal symptoms aside, the British actress had already experienced pressures within the industry around ageing.
“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.
“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.”
It’s no secret that an entire age group of women remain unseen by Hollywood.
“We were all behaving as if between the seductress years and the grandmother roles, women just… I don’t know, vanished?” Watts adds.
Now, Watts is breaking from the taboo to talk about her experience with Menopause in the hope of helping other women manage their experience.
Her new book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known about Menopause will be available from January 21.
