Naomi Watts Started Menopause at 36, but Found a Deeper ‘Authenticity’ Because of It

Hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings…menopause is a common punch line for jokes about women entering middle age. But it hit Naomi Watts when she was just 36. Now a newlywed (she and Billy Crudup quietly tied the knot earlier this year) at the age when most women experience the change, Watts is speaking out about her experience.

“Going through menopause at such a young age was not easy, especially during a time when there was so little information available about it,” she revealed in an interview with British paper Hello! “Mood swings, night sweats, and migraines…I was feeling like I was spiraling out of control.”

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“I truly believe that if menopause hadn’t been such an off-limits topic when I first started experiencing symptoms, I would’ve had an easier transition,” she said, adding that she had to find her own answers for questions about what she was experiencing. But ultimately, she also found a better sense of self. 

“Going through this journey led me to a deeper understanding of myself, and I came out on the other side feeling more authentically me,” she continued. "A lot of freedom came in the self-acknowledgement. I had those voices in the back of my mind reminding me how old women are let out to pasture, but there was a lure to this desire to be authentic, to crawl from behind the invisible wall, and just acknowledge for myself something that everyone could have probably guessed.” She's now partnered with the nonprofit Menopause Mandate to help women in a similar position.

“The most valuable move for any relationship, partnership, workplace, or family is to just be open and honest about what you’re going through,” she said. “Most times this gives people a chance to be empathetic and know how to respond. And plus hiding is so much more exhausting.”