Naomi Watts: I was told starting menopause at 36 would end my Hollywood work and even drawing attention to my age would be 'career suicide'
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Hollywood actress Naomi Watts was warned her career would be over if she revealed she was menopausal. The British-born star, who started experiencing symptoms at just 36, was told that even drawing attention to her age would be ‘career suicide’. But now, aged 56, Ms Watts has spoken of her experiences of menopause in a new book aimed at challenging the stigma older women face in Hollywood.
![[The British-born actress has spoken out about her experience of menopause in a new book Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/11/22/93999389-14274597-image-a-12_1736634738682.jpg)
The King Kong actress writes in Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause: ‘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”. 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 says ‘I was told I would never work again if I admitted to being menopausal, or even perimenopausal']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/11/22/93999237-14274597-image-a-10_1736634625541.jpg)
Ms Watts discovered the hot flushes and night sweats she’d been experiencing for years were signs of early menopause only after a visit to her doctor to find out why she couldn’t conceive. ‘“Looks like you’re close to menopause,” my doctor told me when I was 36 and wondering why I was having so much trouble getting pregnant. I almost fell off the examination table,’ she says in the book, an extract of which was published in The Times.
‘“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!”’. Naomi Watts attends the 2025 Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton in January 2025.
