'Such a failure': Michelle Yeoh on her inability to have children


Michelle Yeoh revealed that she opted for In vitro fertilisation (IVF) but it wasn't a success. Photo: AP

Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh says in a new interview that she feels "like such a failure" for not being able to have children.

The Oscar winner, who was a guest on the BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour show recently, said that she has always loved children and wanted to start a family with her then-husband, Dickson Poon but was unable to.

Yeoh revealed that she opted for In vitro fertilisation (IVF) but it wasn't a success.

"And I think the worst moment to go through is every month you feel like such a failure," the Ipoh-born star said.

"And then you go, why? And 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."

Yeoh married Hong Kong businessman Poon in 1998 when she was 28 years old. They met on the set of her first Hong Kong film, Yes Madam, where he served as a producer. They divorced three years later.

The star of Wicked also said that she still thinks about the fact that she can't have a child.

"Sometimes, honestly, I still think about it," Yeoh said.

"I'm 62. Of course, I'm not going to have a baby right now, but the thing is we just had a grandchild.

"Then you feel you're still very, very blessed because you do have a baby in your life."

Yeoh tied the knot with her long-time partner Jean Todt last year. Earlier this year, her stepson and his wife welcomed a baby, making Yeoh a first-time grandmother.

In a separate interview with Britain's The Times over the weekend, Yeoh said: "Maybe that is the biggest sadness in my life, that I cannot have kids. But the beauty is that I have six godchildren, many nephews and nieces."

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