For decades, menopause has been a taboo subject. Yet in recent years, something remarkable has happened—celebrities are starting to break the silence. More and more women in the limelight, particularly in Hollywood, are using their platforms to share their personal experiences with menopause. This shift is empowering millions of women to open up about their own journeys, but there’s still room for more advocacy, particularly in India. 

Let’s explore how Hollywood stars are leading the way and how Indian celebrities can learn from their examples by engaging with brands that offer solutions for menopausal women as shared by Tamanna Singh, Menopause Coach & Co- founder of Menoveda.

Hollywood’s Menopause Trailblazers In Hollywood, women like Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, and Naomi Watts are helping to normalize conversations about menopause. Oprah, known for her candidness, has been open about her struggles with perimenopause and the changes it brought to her body. She’s used her platform to discuss the emotional and physical challenges she faced and emphasized the importance of breaking the stigma surrounding menopause.

Similarly, Angelina Jolie shared her personal story when she underwent a preventive double mastectomy and later had her ovaries removed due to a high risk of cancer. By going through early menopause, Jolie raised awareness about how medical conditions can affect menopause, making the conversation more nuanced and inclusive of all women.

Naomi Watts has taken her advocacy a step further by launching her own brand dedicated to menopause, called Stripes. She has been open about the struggles she faced during menopause, particularly the lack of information and resources. Her brand offers skincare and wellness products tailored specifically to menopausal women, showing how celebrities can not only share their experiences but actively contribute to improving the lives of women going through this life stage.

More Celebrities Join the Conversation Other stars like Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Meg Mathews have also shared their menopause experiences publicly. Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand Goop frequently addresses women’s health issues, including menopause, through its content and product offerings. Paltrow is known for encouraging women to embrace this phase of life, offering wellness tips that go beyond just treating symptoms.

Meg Mathews, the ex-wife of Oasis band member Noel Gallagher, is another outspoken advocate. After experiencing what she calls “the crash” of menopause, she founded Meg’s Menopause, a website offering information, support, and products to women going through the same experience. Mathews speaks openly about the mental and physical effects of menopause, helping to remove the stigma and encouraging women to seek the help they need.

In these cases, Hollywood women are not just sharing their stories; they’re building entire platforms and brands around menopause, offering real solutions to other women. This level of engagement and activism is powerful. However, it’s not just about individual experiences—it’s about celebrities using their influence to create change in how society views and addresses menopause.

The Indian Perspective: Time to Do More While Hollywood stars are paving the way, Indian celebrities have been slower to join the conversation. However, some progress is being made. Indian actress Neena Gupta has spoken about menopause and aging in her interviews, challenging societal norms about how women “should” behave after a certain age. Gupta’s openness about her life and health has resonated with many women in India, showing that it’s possible to age gracefully and confidently without shame.

Posting one picture on social media isn’t enough. Indian celebrities can leverage their vast influence to educate women about menopause and encourage them to embrace this natural phase of life. They can actively partner with or invest in brands helping to spread awareness and ensure women have access to the resources they need. By aligning with a brand that focuses on holistic well-being, these stars can not only destigmatize menopause but also provide meaningful support to women who are going through it.

Why Celebrities’ Voices Matter When a celebrity opens up about a personal health issue like menopause, it’s more than just a confession—it’s an opportunity to normalize the conversation for millions of women. Women often feel shame, confusion, and isolation when they enter menopause, largely because society has remained silent on the subject for so long. Celebrities have the power to change this. Their voices can reach millions, encouraging more women to speak up, seek help, and feel less alone.

At 90 years old, veteran actor and Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine was in a spicy mood. Looking through photographs from her long career, captured mostly in black and white, she remarked, “Where are the nude ones?”

Of one picture of her seated on the hood of a Cadillac on the Paramount lot, she said, “Here, I’m just trying to be coy, on purpose. Jesus. What a jerk!”

And another: “Oh, there I wanted to see how my legs photographed.”

They photographed well! “Well, I was born with good legs,” she admitted.

MacLaine always had a seductive spark. She was a pixie-haired triple-threat – singer, dancer and actor. She could turn every well-known head in Hollywood, and then some, like Dean Martin, whom she called the funniest person she ever met. She says she had a crush on him, but it never developed romantically: “No! I sort of was afraid if I got that close, he would be less funny,” she said. “And I think the humor meant more to me.”

Her picture of that love-not-to-be, along with hundreds of others, from fellow Rat Packers to politicians, once adorned MacLaine’s home in Santa Fe. She called it her “Wall of Life.” “I just started filling an empty wall, and loved it,” she said.

She just finished organizing that wall of life into a captioned photographic memoir, called, “The Wall of Life.”

It starts where she did, growing up in Virginia, the daughter of two educators and the older sister of would-be actor and Oscar-winning director Warren Beatty. “He was a little baby pup, and I took care of him and watched out for him,” MacLaine said.

While Warren waited until college to go into acting, Shirley changed her last name to her middle name, and danced her way to New York, even before graduating from high school.

She credits everything to two teachers who offered a bit of prophetic advice: “I remember the day they sat me down and told me I have too much expression in my dancing. I might want to think about acting.”         

As the story goes, MacLaine was cast as the understudy in the original Broadway production of “The Pajama Game.” When the star, Carole Haney, injured her ankle, MacLaine was thrown on stage, with just five minutes’ notice. “I never had a rehearsal,” she said.

She nailed it, or at least Alfred Hitchcock thought she did. He cast her in his next film, “The Trouble with Harry.” It was her first movie.

She’d have lunch with Hitchcock almost every day: “I had these huge Hitchcockian meals!” she laughed. “Make-up and hair came to me and said, ‘Look, you’re going to gain weight,’ and I did! I gained 25 pounds.”

She says producer Hal Wallis had an appetite for her talent, too, and maybe a bit more. As she remembers it, he greeted her at that famous gate on the Paramount lot on her very first day: “He walked out of his office, and then walked toward my car. I rolled down the window. He leaned in and put his tongue down my throat.”

He later gave her a sports car, but not an apology. “What a jerk,” MacLaine said.

She was newly married at the time, to the only man she ever married, businessman Steve Parker, whom she described as the love of her life.

They soon had a daughter, Sachi Parker. Sachi’s parents had a famously open marriage – MacLaine spent most of her time in New York and Hollywood, while Parker and their daughter lived mostly in Japan.

She was, she admits, an unconventional mom, and an unconventional wife.

Her past affairs (if you can call them that) were hardly secret. She’s been pretty open about almost all of them. Yet she also said, “I don’t think I was that attractive. For a while I think, ‘Oh God, I’m not sexy-attractive.’ But then, I had my relationships, and they do think so.”

She was just as open about those she’d never been with, like Jack Nicholson. When she won her Oscar for her role opposite Nicholson in “Terms of Endearment,” he couldn’t keep a straight face when she thanked him: “I have wanted to work with the comic chemistry of Jack Nicholson since his chicken salad sandwich scene in ‘Easy Pieces,’ and to have him in bed was such middle-aged joy!”

She never stopped inhabiting memorable characters. She found roles that suited her and her age in films like as “Steel Magnolias” and “Postcards from the Edge.” She was in her late 70s when she joined the cast of TV’s “Downton Abbey,” and she was in her 80s when she appeared on “Only Murders in the Building.”

For someone who famously claims to have lived several past lives, photos of her current life sure make it look spectacular. No wonder she believes people have come back from the beyond to talk with her about it, like Cecil B. DeMille, who died almost 40 years before she received the lifetime achievement award named after him: “I’m going to take this award home, and of course I will be speaking directly to Mr. DeMille later,” she said. 

MacLaine still lives in Santa Fe. She says she fits here: “I love the old antique-y, it’s-still-here feeling. It reminds me of myself!”

She’s well aware that time is running out to satisfy all her curiosities, but she has been very open about not being afraid of dying: “Oh, no. I’m kind of interested in going there,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being part of the heaven experience. I really am.”

But for now at least, Shirley MacLaine isn’t going anywhere. 

      
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Story produced by Reid Orvedahl. Editor: Mike Levine. 

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