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Michelle Yeoh is in Wicked. I feel like people have sort of missed that. Yeoh won the Best Actress Oscar last year, which was well-deserved not only for Everything Everywhere All At Once, but for her entire career. Her post-Oscar work has been all over the place though – a Netflix series (canceled after one season), A Haunting in Venice (another fruity Ken Brannagh-as-Poirot outing), some voice work and now a smallish part in Wicked. Yeoh likes to keep working though, so I suspect she just says yes to a lot of things she’s offered. Anyway, as Yeoh promoted Wicked, she ended up talking about her first marriage and infertility.
Michelle Yeoh is opening up about how infertility has impacted her life. On Monday, Nov. 18, the actress, 62, spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about how she “felt like a failure” for not being able to have children.
“And I think the worst moment to go through is every month you feel like such a failure,” she said. “And then you go, why? And I think at some point you stop blaming yourself. I go, there are certain things in your body that doesn’t function in a certain way. 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 also opened up about how her infertility impacted her first marriage with businessman Sir Dickson Poon, to whom she was married from 1988 to 1992. Explaining that it “took a long time” for her to come to terms with not having her own biological children, Yeoh added “because that also maybe would be the main factor that broke up my first marriage.” However, the Wicked star revealed that the breakup was necessary as “in 10 years or 20 years, I still can’t give him the family that he craves.”
Yeoh went on to urge couples to have conversations about family planing at the beginning of their relationships. Poon went on to have children, with Yeoh being the godmother of his first child.
Now married to French motor racing executive Jean Todt, the star added that although she still thinks about not being able to have children of her own, she is grateful to be a grandmother thanks to her stepson. “I’m 62. Of course I’m not going to have a baby right now, but the thing is we just had a grandchild,” she said. “Then you feel you’re still very, very blessed because you do have a baby in your life.”
I honestly didn’t know that Michelle was childfree because of infertility – I thought it was by choice. I agree that no one should blame themselves for infertility and I also agree that family planning conversations should happen early in a relationship, basically as soon as you start imagining a future with someone. That being said, even with the family-planning discussions, many people don’t know they have fertility issues until they’re married and actively trying to conceive. Anyway, I’m glad Michelle has had a full life of great roles and love, and she still gets to be a stepmom and grandmother. I bet she loves being a grandmother.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 09: Michelle Yeoh wearing Balenciaga FW24 Couture arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Universal Pictures’ ‘Wicked’ held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center on November 9, 2024 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 932685125, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Michelle Yeoh, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 09: Michelle Yeoh wearing Balenciaga FW24 Couture arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Universal Pictures’ ‘Wicked’ held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center on November 9, 2024 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 932685269, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Michelle Yeoh, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
Celebs and Cast members attend the Wicked film premiere at the Royal Festival Hall,Image: 936089370, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Michelle Yeoh, Credit line: Phil Lewis/Wenn/Avalon
Michelle Yeoh attends “Wicked: Part One” UK Premiere at The Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Monday 18th November 2024 -,Image: 936244610, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Wicked: Part One – UK Premiere, Credit line: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
UK premiere of ‘Wicked’ at the Royal Festival Hall
Featuring: Michelle Yeoh
Where: London, United Kingdom
When: 18 Nov 2024
Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages
**NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
