Publishing memoirs is all the rage in Hollywood. In the last year, biographies of Britney Spears, Kerry Washington, Jada Pinkett Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, Rebel Wilson, etc. have been published. The latest to join this publishing wave is Naomi Watts (Shoreham, UK, 55 years old), but she will do it in a different way. The actress does not want to tell her life in a book, but rather her experience with menopause. “This is a book about how my life turned upside down when I was told I was close to menopause at 36! Just when I was ready to start a family. I thought that was the end of everything. My fertility and career went boom,” she describes her new project. on his Instagram profilewhere this Tuesday, August 20, he gave the news to his almost two million followers.
The publication is accompanied by the cover of the booktitled Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Know about Menopause (Dare I say it: everything I wish I’d known about the menopause), which shows Watts holding a flaming megaphone. “I stayed quiet for as long as I could. But knowing that half the population will go through menopause and that both of my grandmothers are still alive and going strong, I was determined to do more research and optimize my health, as well as bring women together so we can feel like we’re not alone in this. We deserve more!” she warns in her message on social media. The book will be on sale on January 21, 2025 in the United States and Australia, and will reach British bookstores on the 23rd.
The pages chronicle much of Watts’ personal story, including accounts of her own experience with menopause, plus conversations with friends and experts, and a foreword by Dr Mary Claire Haver, in an effort to break down the taboo surrounding this stage of life. “Women have had to suffer in silence and shame for too long about the changes they experience during menopause, with little access to information, support or even open conversation,” the actress said. in an interview with the magazine People on the occasion of this upcoming release. “I hope this book can help women feel a little less alone, a little more supported and, dare I say, a little more excited about the natural changes that life has in store for us,” she adds.
This guide of advice and experiences, which the author wants to be read “as if one were sitting down having a coffee and having an intimate conversation with one’s partner,” is not the first project with which the actress of Impossible either King Kong makes money from menopause. In 2023, she launched Stripes, a brand of skin products ―a refreshing facial mist, a hydrating vaginal gel, probiotics…― focused on women who, like her, have the first symptoms of menopause on their skin. “I was very anxious before creating this business and then I thought: ‘Well, all women are going to get to this point. Why don’t we get better medical care? There is simply a lack of education and research,” confessed in January 2024 to People in a conversation about the brand.
With her new book, Watts hopes to help “anyone who is trying to master this stage of life and turn it into a time of liberation rather than a mere trial period.” “Menopause is part of a woman’s midlife, but midlife is much more than menopause,” she says in her new chat with the American magazine.
In July 2023, the British actress, recently married to actor Billy Crudup, already explained in an interview with the magazine Hello! what it had been like for her to receive the menopause diagnosis two decades ago. “Going through this journey led me to a deeper understanding of myself and I came out the other side feeling more authentically myself. The recognition of myself gave me a lot of freedom,” she said at the time. Watts also collaborates with Menopause Mandate, a nonprofit that aims to revolutionize midlife support available to American women, and hopes the partnership will help women feel more supported and less alone, as she felt at the beginning. “I truly believe that if menopause hadn’t been such a forbidden topic when I first started experiencing symptoms, I would have had an easier transition. There was a lack of open conversations and resources to help women navigate the changes we go through. That’s why I’m so passionate about raising awareness and encouraging more honest conversations now,” she explained. Now she seems determined to fill that void of resources and conversations—and, in the process, increase her fortune.
