Michelle Yeoh wants women to know that there is a life beyond infertility.
The 62-year-old “Everything Everywhere All at Once” actress took some time out of her day to speak about her own struggle with infertility during a Nov. 19 episode of the “Woman’s Hour” podcast.
“I always wanted to have children,” she said on the podcast.
“I went and did fertility [treatments] to aid in the process. I think that’s the worst moment to go through is every month. You feel like such a failure,” she added.
Yeoh went on to explain how she managed to forgive, forget and, eventually, move forward.
“At some point, you stop blaming yourself,” she advised.
“There are certain things in your body that don’t function in a certain way. That’s how it is. You just have to let go and move on. I think you come to a point where you have to stop blaming you,” she continued.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 17.5% of the adult population, or roughly one in six people worldwide, experience infertility.
Yeoh’s comments echo the advice she gave in a recent interview with “The New York Times,” published Nov. 17.
In that interview, she recalls wanting to start a family with her first husband, Dickson Poon, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and CEO.
The former couple tied the knot in 1988, the same year Yeoh retired from acting, but the marriage took a sudden turn when she learned she couldn’t have kids.
She described her infertility as the “biggest sadness” in her life, but also the main reason why she and Poon decided to end their marriage in 1991.
“I have always given it my 110%. I did everything to make it work, and sometimes even that is not enough,” she told The Times.
“You have to learn to let go, and sometimes letting go helps you move forward,” she added.
During her Nov. 19 appearance on “Woman’s Hour,” she further described how difficult that decision to get a divorce was, even though it was the right decision for their future.
“These are conversations that you really have to have with yourself and be able to look ahead and think, ‘Yes, we love each other very much now, but in 10 years or 20 years, I still can’t give him the family that he craves,’” she said, adding, “You have to be fair.”
That dialogue between a couple, she said, is so important and is something “you have to face right at the beginning.” Not doing so will set you up for “a lot of hurt and difficult times.”
“So, I think it was very brave on our path to admit and to say, ‘OK, let’s not drag this out because that’s what we’re doing,’” she explained.
While the couple divorced in 1991, Yeoh and Poon have maintained a close bond. And while she couldn’t have kids herself, she was honored to be named the godmother of Poon’s eldest daughter.
“But the beauty is that I have six godchildren, many nephews and nieces,” she clarified.
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