Naomi Watts Recalls Embarrassing Incident During Her First Time With Husband Billy Crudup

Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup’s first time together didn’t go quite as planned. Appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show on Monday, Jan. 27 amid the release of her memoir, Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause, the Mulholland Drive actress, 56, got candid about the earliest days of her relationship with Crudup, 56, including an embarrassing moment during the first time she and her husband had sex that left her “mortified.”

“I’m not going to embarrass him and talk about it in depth on live TV, but I was mortified because I had my patch on,” Watts said, referring to the transdermal skin patches used to alleviate menopause symptoms. “If anyone’s ever worn a patch, you know that they’re very sticky, the adhesive takes ages to get off. In fact, my first doctor that told me to wear the patch said just use car oil, that’ll be fine. And I’m like, ‘I don’t want to use car oil on my body.’”

Watts said that she instead decided to pull off the patch as best she could, the adhesive residue leaving a “nasty mark.” When things started heating up between her and Crudup, whom she married in 2023, Watts “excused myself, ran off to the bathroom and panicked, like, ‘What am I gonna do?’ And I’m scratching away.”

When the actress eventually came out of the bathroom “frantic” after a period of time, she recalled how Crudup “said, ‘Are you OK? Are you not in the mood?’” An embarrassed Watts decided to come clean, telling him, “‘No, I just, well, look, I’m in menopause and I have treatment and I have this patch and I’m wearing it and it leaves this… I’m old, should I just leave?”

“I was trying my best to apologize,” she said. “I was shrinking and he was like, ‘We’re the same age. We’re the same age. What is this? This is science. How can I help?’”

Reflecting on the sweet moment, the King Kong actress couldn’t help but gush over her husband whom she said “really is a special man. When I was deep in my shame, I felt he understood me. He felt compassionate and curious and empathetic. He really felt like this was something I should lean into.”

Watts and Crudup sparked romance in 2017 after they first met on the set of the Netflix’s Gypsy, on which they played a husband and wife. They went on to make their red carpet debut as a couple in 2022, and tied the knot in June 2023 at a New York City courthouse. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary over the summer by exchanging vows a second time in a ceremony attended by close friends and family in Mexico City.