Michelle Yeoh Says She Felt Like A ‘Failure’ For Not Having Children

Michelle Yeoh is opening up about how struggling with infertility issues made her feel like “such a failure.”
“I always wanted to have children,” she said on Monday’s episode of BBC Radio 4′s “Woman’s Hour.” “I went and did fertility [treatments] to aid in the process. I think that’s the worst moment to go through is every month. You feel like such a failure.”
The “Wicked” actor, 62, said it “took a long time” for her to come to terms with not being able to conceive, but she eventually learned to “stop blaming” herself.
“I think at some point you stop blaming yourself. I go, there are certain things in your body that doesn’t function in a certain way. That’s how it is. You just have to let go and move on,” she continued.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people globally — about 17.5% of the adult population — experience infertility issues in their lifetime.
Yeoh said that not being able to have biological children put a strain on her marriage to Hong Kong business mogul Dickson Poon, calling it “the main factor that broke up” their union. The pair were married from 1988 to 1992.
The Oscar winner, who later married French motorsports executive Jean Todt in 2023 following their 19-year engagement, stressed the importance of couples having deep conversations about family planning in the early stages to avoid “a lot of hurt and difficult times.”
“These are conversations that you really have to have with yourself and be able to look ahead and think, ‘Yes, we love each other very much now,’” she explained. “But in 10 years or 20 years, I still can’t give him the family that he craves. You have to be fair.”
“So, I think it was very brave … to say, ‘OK, let’s not drag this out, because that’s what we’re doing,’” she added of ending her marriage with Poon.
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In a separate interview with The Sunday Times published Nov. 17, the “Crazy Rich Asians” alum said Poon went on to have children in a different relationship, and she was given the honor of becoming the godmother of his first child.
She told the publication that she doesn’t “live with regrets” because “the beauty is that I have six godchildren, many nephews and nieces.”
“In life, we say, you have to not go around holding your hands like this, you have to learn to let go, and sometimes letting go helps you move forward,” Yeoh added.
Watch a clip from Yeoh’s “Woman’s Hour” interview below.