Michelle Yeoh, the 62-year-old Oscar-winning actress, opened up about her struggles with infertility during an interview on BBC Radio’s “Woman’s Hour” on the 18th. Yeoh revealed that not being able to conceive had made her feel like a failure at times.
In 1984, while filming in Hong Kong, Yeoh met and fell in love with Dickson Poon, the founder of Dickson Concepts. The couple got married in 1988 after a 4-year courtship. Yeoh, who had always wanted a family, even took a break from acting to focus on being a homemaker. Despite trying various methods during their 4-year marriage, she was unable to have children.
“The worst moments were feeling like a failure every month and asking myself, ‘Why is this happening?'” Yeoh told the host of BBC Radio’s “Woman’s Hour” during the interview.
Yeoh and her ex-husband were once very much in love, but he needed heirs to inherit his business empire. “Not just one, but two sons, and even better if three,” he had said. Yeoh’s inability to conceive became a major reason for the end of their first marriage.
When asked how long it took for her to come to terms with her infertility, Yeoh replied, “At a certain point, you stop blaming yourself. Because you realize you have to let go and move forward.” She shared that both she and her ex-husband were brave when they reached a mutual agreement to divorce, saying, “Okay, let’s not procrastinate, because this is what we are doing. And we tried.”
Born in Malaysia, Yeoh won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant in 1983. She became known for her roles in action films such as “Police Story III: Supercop” and “The Heroic Trio” after moving to Hong Kong in 1984. Her international career began with the 1997 film “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
After her divorce from Poon in 1992, Yeoh returned to the film industry and eventually made her way to Hollywood. At the 95th Academy Awards last year, she won the Best Actress award for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” becoming the first Asian actress to win an Oscar.
In 2023, Yeoh married French businessman Jean Todt, whom she had been engaged to for 19 years and who is 17 years her senior. Todt has a son, Nicholas, from a previous marriage. On January 2nd this year, Yeoh shared a photo on social media holding a baby’s foot and announced that she had become a grandmother. She wrote on Instagram, “We are truly blessed!”
While Yeoh admitted feeling like a failure for not being able to conceive in her lifetime, she also added, “The good thing is, I have six godsons and goddaughters, many nephews and nieces. I have no regrets in life because I have always given my all.”