‘Never got in the way again’: Here’s what Naomi Watts does with husband Billy Crudup to ensure a healthy libido after 50

Naomi Watts is baring all in her new memoir about menopause, Dare I Say It, including her best sex tips from life with her husband, fellow actor Billy Crudup.

It has never been sexier to be over 50 in Hollywood. From Gen Z’s obsession with calling people “mother” to Nicole Kidman tapping into her wildest fantasies in Babygirl and Demi Moore getting her first major award, older women are getting their hard-earned vindication.

That’s in no small part thanks to Watts, who, for years, has been a passionate advocate for speaking openly and frankly about life after menopause. In 2022, she founded a menopause-focused beauty brand which offered vaginal lubricants and hydrating gels, among many other helpful products, and now she’s publishing a book.

Watts freaked out before her first time with Crudup

In an excerpt published in The Times, the 56-year-old details meeting her future husband on the set of the Netflix psychological thriller drama series Gypsy in 2017, shortly after the dissolution of her marriage to Ray Donovan‘s Liev Schreiber. Crudup, also 56, played her character’s husband, and Watts says it took a long period of simulated sex on camera for her to consider doing it for real in private.

When it was finally about to happen, she rushed to the bathroom to peel out her hormonal patch, taking some time to rub off the mark it left on her skin. “I was worried that if he saw it he would realize it meant I was menopausal: no longer a vibrant, fertile being,” she explained.

What followed were the “most romantic words [Watts has] ever heard, on-screen or off,” including movie scripts and Crudup’s marriage proposal seven years later: “Hey, if it makes you feel better, I’ve got grey hairs on my balls.”

Watts says she was lucky that the man she had this experience with was “compassionate, not squeamish or awkward,” adding “My hormone patches never got in the way of sex again.”

The secret to great sex after 50 is communication and understanding your needs

To keep your sex life alive after menopause inevitably changes your libido, Watts recommends radical honesty with your partner and trying different things to figure out what works best. She’s tried both estrogen and testosterone hormonal therapy in different doses at different times, and has even gone back to the latter after an initial attempt was unsuccessful.

Another thing the Oscar-nominated actress encourages is self-pleasure, whatever that looks like for you. “A changing libido is completely normal and … there are things we can do about it if we want to,” she remarks.

Watts had entered early menopause by her mid-thirties

The journey began prematurely for the Mulholland Drive star when, at 36, a doctor told her she was entering early menopause. That then triggered a whole new set of challenges, from her personal life to her career. When to have kids, how to retain Hollywood desirability, how to keep your partner interested — all questions on the table at one point or another after a doctor’s appointment Watts describes as stunning and scary.

‘What do you mean?’ I said, gasping for air. ‘Close to menopause? That’s for grandmothers. I’m not even a mother yet. And, by the way, that’s what I’m here for, to become a mother. Take it back!’”

Since then, however, she’s made it a point to help other women navigate that inevitable moment in their lives, especially within an industry like Hollywood’s. Menopause and older women’s sexuality are only now breaking out of their taboo cage in the media. And we are loving this new era.