“It got in my head!” the Birdman actress admitted after sharing how a former trainer’s comments about her body caused her to cover up.
Naomi Watts is opening up about her body image struggles.
In her new book, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause, Watts recalled the moment she started “hiding” her body after getting shamed by a personal trainer.
“If I wear a bikini it’s not a string bikini. I’ll make sure it’s high-waisted, covering my belly button,” Watts shares in her book. “I also started hiding my thighs after a trainer I’d worked with wrote about me in his book as being ‘fleshy.’ It got in my head!”
Watts appeared to be referring to the 2008 book titled Star Quality: The Red Carpet Workout for the Celebrity Body of Your Dreams, written by celebrity trainer Rob Parr, whose comments about Watts made headlines when the book was released.
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Elsewhere in her book, the Birdman actress got candid about her menopause journey in which she wrote that there “are no universal rules” when it comes to what women wear.
“We should wear whatever we want, especially in middle age,” Watts shared in the book, which is part memoir, part guide to aging. “The great liberation for me has been realizing that when it comes to how we look, as the saying goes, the people ‘who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.'”
One problem area that Watts was comfortable joking about, is her elbows, writing, “I’m glad I don’t have to see my own elbows so I’ll wear whatever sleeves I want and if you need to look away that’s your problem.
The 56-year-old actress also detailed her exercise routine, and what inspired her to start wearing crop tops in her 50s.
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“Our bodies aren’t as taut or injury-free or unlined as they were twenty or thirty years ago,” she explained. “I’ve given birth and spent decades more in all weathers, and it shows.”
Watts added of her stomach, which she proudly shows off, “It’s so wrinkled that it resembles a paper bag that’s been twisted up and left damp on the side of the road. And yet, I’ll wear a crop top now, which I never would have done back before I had the paper-bag stomach.”
Despite the little things she takes issue with here and there, Watts told readers that overall, she’s “proud” of her body.
“I’ll show it to the world if I want to,” she added. “At this age, we can exercise not just for vanity but for joy and health, which feels much more rewarding.”
Dare I Say It is out now.
