Halle Berry Says She Is 'Challenging Everything I Thought I Knew About Menopause' at 56: 'Own Wherever You Are'

The actress and director opens up to 'Women’s Health' about sexuality and aging

Halle Berry wants women to know there’s nothing to fear about aging.

“I'm my best self now that I reached 56 years old,” Berry, who turns 57 on August 14, says in Women’s Health. “I have the most to offer. I have zero blanks to give anymore. I'm solidly in my womanhood. I finally realize what I have to say is valuable, even if no one else agrees.”

Berry opened up about issues surrounding women's health — particularly, sexuality and intimacy — at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

“We can make talking about women’s health issues less taboo by daring to talk about it,” the Oscar winner says. “If you start the conversation, most women will follow. Do you know why? Because it's something that we're dying to do. It's something that we've been deprived of, and it's something that we want to share with one another. We just need the permission to do it.”

That’s the mission behind Re-Spin, the digital health and wellness community that Berry founded in 2020.

“Community is the entrée into understanding. We're all going through it,” she says.

And one thing she’s dealing with right now is menopause — but Berry says she’s not going to surrender to society's expectations about it. In fact, she’s “challenging all those stereotypes about how you have to look a certain way or feel a certain way” while she’s “smack dab in the middle of menopause.”

“I am challenging everything I thought I knew about menopause. Things like: ‘Your life is over.’ ‘You are disposable.’ ‘Society no longer has a place for you.’ ‘You should retire.’ ‘You should pack it up,’ ” the mom of daughter Nahla Ariela, 15, (whom she shares with ex Gabriel Aubry) and son Maceo-Robert, 9, (whom she shares with ex-husband Olivier Martinez), says.

Related: Halle Berry Is Completely Carefree While Skateboarding in a Bikini to Celebrate Leo Season

“The most important thing about owning your sexuality as a woman is accepting the station you're at — and embracing that,” says Berry, who has been in a relationship with Grammy-winning musician Van Hunt since 2020. "Own wherever you are. That's where I'm at."

In addition to devoting time to her wellness company, Berry has shifted her focus to directing. Her directorial debut, Bruised, in which she also played an MMA fighter, debuted on Netflix in 2021.

And she says going behind the camera has changed her perspective — irrevocably.

“I'll never go back to being the person I was before I became a director,” she tells Women’s Health. ”You cannot go back to just being the dancing bear. It's impossible…I realize I always have my director hat on.”

Related: Halle Berry Shuts Down Criticism of Her Nude Wine-Drinking Pic with Funny Tweet

It’s changed the way Berry chooses her projects, she says. “I challenge every script. I ask, “What's the female point of view?” Because so many of these scripts today are still written by men. Men are writing roles for women. They're writing roles for characters that they do not understand.”

“Forcing people to think outside the box of what they wrote and really consider our point of view," she says, "That's the greatest role I've been playing lately."

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