Naomi Watts said she tried to freeze her eggs in her early 30s after being told she had to 'work, work, work'
Nathan Congleton/NBC
- Naomi Watts says she tried to freeze her eggs when she was in her early 30s.
- She wanted to prioritize her career because she was told her opportunities would "be dried up at 40."
- She joins actors like Anne Hathaway and Kirsten Dunst in speaking up against ageism in Hollywood.
Naomi Watts, 56, says she was turned away from freezing her eggs when she was in her early 30s.
During an interview with Katie Couric on Friday, the actor spoke about her struggles with early menopause and starting a family.
"By the way, I tried to freeze my eggs in my early 30s right when my career started getting going, because I had a feeling that I was going to have to work," Watts told Couric.
Part of the reason she wanted to prioritize her career over her personal life was because she started seeing professional success later in life.
Even though she had started acting when she was 18, Watts gained prominence in Hollywood at 33 after starring in David Lynch's 2001 psychological thriller "Mulholland Drive."
"I came into it late — at least with my launching — and I was told to work, work, work, because it'll all be dried up at 40," Watts said.
She decided to be "proactive" and consulted a doctor about freezing her eggs.
"And again, I was told, 'Don't be silly, you're way too young. That's fine, and it's not a perfect science anyway.' And I was sort of turned away," Watts said, recounting the doctor's words.
However, when she noticed symptoms of perimenopause at 36, she decided to try again.
"And then I came back at 36, and those eggs weren't freezable, so I just had to find a way to find my last best possibility. Like, there must have been just a couple more eggs in there," Watts said.
Watts went on to welcome two children — Sasha, 17, and Kai, 16 — with her former partner, Liev Schreiber, naturally. She has been married to "Eat, Pray, Love" actor Billy Crudup since 2023.
In 2022, the actor shared that she was told her career would end at 40 when she became "unfuckable."
"Then you think about it, and you go, 'Oh, right. When you are no longer reproductive, when those organs are no longer functioning, you are not sexy, so, therefore, you are not hirable.' That just made me so mad," Watts told Entertainment Weekly.
Watts isn't the only female celebrity who has spoken out about ageism in Hollywood.
In an interview with Porter magazine in November 2023, Anne Hathaway said she was told her career would "fall off a cliff" after she turned 35.
In March 2024, Kirsten Dunst told Marie Claire that she took a two-year break from acting because she was being typecast and only offered "sad mom" roles.
Kathy Bates told Variety in a 2024 interview that she credits her long career to not looking like a beauty queen.
But ageism against women is a problem that's prevalent in other workplaces, too.
A survey of 913 women published in Harvard Business Review in June 2023 suggested that women in leadership roles faced workplace age discrimination at every age bracket.
A representative for Watts did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.