Michelle Yeoh opened up about her infertility struggles during her interview with BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. The Academy Award winner revealed that she wished to have children but her fertility struggles during her marriage to the Hong Kong business tycoon Dickson Poon were in vain and made her feel like a ‘failure.’
“I think the worst moment to go through is every month you feel like such a failure,” she said. The Crazy Rich Asians actress admitted that blamed herself before realizing that some parts of the body don’t do what they’re supposed to and that’s how it is.
“You just have to let go and move on. And I think you come to a point where you have to stop blaming you,’ she added. However, ‘it took a long time’ to come to terms with her infertility, and to some extent, it became the reason for her first divorce. Yeoh and Poon were married between 1988 and 1992.
The actress moved on and tied the knot with her longtime partner Jean Todt in 2023 after a 19-year-long engagement. Although she described not having kids as the ‘biggest sadness in my life” (in an interview with The Times) she’s grateful to have six godchildren, many nephews, and nieces.
“I’m 62. Of course, I’m not going to have a baby right now, but the thing is we just had a grandchild. Then you feel you’re still very, very blessed because you do have a baby in your life,’ she said. Yeoh created history by being the first Asian woman to win a best actress Oscar for her role as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Now, she’s starring in one of the most anticipated films of the year, Wicked. The film adaptation of one of the hit Broadways centers around the blooming friendship of Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). As for Yeoh — who reunited with her Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu — she portrays Madame Morrible, a headmistress at Shiz University.
Wicked which is framed as a prequel to Wizard of Oz will hit the theaters on November 22.
