Actress and entrepreneur Halle Berry sat down with Gwyneth Paltrow’s The goop Podcast to discuss how she feels that her aging process has encouraged her to develop in personality as well.
LISTEN NOW: Gwyneth Paltrow x Halle Berry: Taking Back Your Power - The goop Podcast
Though the two actresses joked that they hate the compliment of looking “good for your age”, Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow quickly dove into the topic for the latest The goop Podcast episode. “Especially now as I face this path of life, I now realize that you know, beauty isn't just our physical self,” Berry told host Paltrow. As a 57-year-old woman, the "path of life" includes better perspectives on aging and wellness, especially given her struggles with menopause.
“For me, it's been more about just how my body is changing, how my energy level is changing, my sleep is changing,” she said, revealing that menopause had brought on some of the “roughest times" of her life. "I can't remember things anymore. I feel very out of touch with the world sometimes. I live in my own sort of bubble as we go through menopause very alone. So I kind of have been suffering in silence.” A lot of that loneliness comes from the fact that menopause symptoms are rarely treated or diagnosed. In those cases, women are expected to just brave through the pain, though Berry noted that, “if this is what men went through, they would've figured this out a long time ago.”
So how has Halle Berry changed for the better? “I feel like I am a person today that takes no s*** and has no f**** to give - excuse me,” she told Paltrow, who roared with laughter. “But, that's a hard person to become because most people don't wanna deal with that person. They want you to be that person they used to know that was cordial, that dealt with all their crap… you take care of everyone's egos and you know, you play that role. It's more me now realizing I've evolved. I've earned the right to evolve into somebody different. And I, I have to say what I have to say now.”
Berry cites menopause as having “hit” her so hard that it forced her to put herself and her wellness first. And Paltrow agreed wholeheartedly, saying that there’s a “degree to which [women] need to be our own quarterbacks.”
“I think not only through menopause but through a lot of this stuff that we go through as women, you should ask these questions. You should push back. You should push further and harder.”
To hear more about Halle Berry’s identity shift, and how that’s played a role in her development of company Pendulum Therapeutics, check out the full podcast above and on the free Audacy app.