Halle Berry speaks at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June 2023.Photo:Lionel Hahn/Getty
Lionel Hahn/Getty
Halle Berrywants women to know there’s nothing to fear about aging.
“I’m my best selfnow that I reached 56 years old,” Berry, who turns 57 on August 14, says inWomen’s Health. “I have the most to offer. I have zeroblanksto 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 theCannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
That’s the mission behindRe-Spin, the digital health and wellness community thatBerry founded in 2020.
“Community is the entrée into understanding. We’re all going through it,” she says.
Berry says “own wherever you are” in life.halleberry/Instagram
halleberry/Instagram
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 daughterNahla Ariela, 15, (whom she shares with exGabriel Aubry) and sonMaceo-Robert, 9, (whom she shares with ex-husbandOlivier Martinez), says.
“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 beenin a relationshipwith Grammy-winningmusician Van Huntsince 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.
Halle Berry and longtime partner Van Hunt attended the Academy Awards together in March.Emma McIntyre/Getty
Emma McIntyre/Getty
“I’ll never go back to being the person I was before I became a director,” she tellsWomen’s Health. ”You cannot go back to just being the dancing bear. It’s impossible…I realize I always have my director hat on.”
“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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source: people.com
