Many women feel pressure to have children by the time they enter their 30s or shortly thereafter. Monster’s Ball actress Halle Berry is telling women everywhere that there is no rush and that women don’t have to get “bogged down” by pressure to have babies in their 30s.
The mother-of-two, got up-close-and-personal in an interview with Women’s Health about her journey through womanhood, including waiting to have children and menopause.
“I’m solidly in my womanhood. I finally realize what I have to say is valuable, even if no one else agrees,” the 56-year-old director told the popular outlet.
She continued saying, “Here’s what I tell women: Own wherever you are. If you’re in your mid-thirties, don’t be bogged down by the idea that you have to have children by a certain age.”
Berry continued her advice telling women that they should be the ones to decided even if they want to even have children.
“You decide. And if you want to have children, you don’t have to be defined by those old ideologies that this is what women ‘have’ to do,” Berry said. “Do it only if you want to, because you give up a lot of your personal life to growing those other lives. And maybe you’re not a woman who wants to do that. No harm, no foul, no judgment.”
Berry is mother to 15-year-old Nahla and nine-year-old Maceo. She welcomed her first child in March of 2008 with ex-partner Gabriel Aubry at the age of 41-years-old. Maceo-Robert Martinez, Berry’s son, was born five years later, when the Oscar-winner was 46, to she and ex-husband Olivier Martinez.
In her interview, Berry said that at 56, she is her “best self now.”
“I’m challenging all those stereotypes about how you have to look a certain way or feel a certain way. I’m my best self now that I reached 56 years old. I have the most to offer. I have zero blanks to give anymore. I’m solidly in my womanhood. I finally realize what I have to say is valuable, even if no one else agrees.”
To read Berry’s interview in its entirety, click here. We cannot wait to see what the future holds for her because we are almost certain that it is going to be nothing less than truly amazing!
Photo Credit(s)/Featured Image: Halle Berry Instagram
