Naomi Watts 'I WAS SO SCARED'

The award-winning actress spills on the moment a doctor first mentioned the dreaded 'M' word

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Looks like you're close to menopause,” my doctor told me when I was 36 and wondering why I was having so much trouble getting pregnant.

I almost fell off the examination table. “What do you mean?” I said, gasping for air. “Close to menopause? That's for grandmothers! I'm not even a mother yet! And, by the way, that's what I'm here for, to become a mother! Take it back!”

I was trying to joke, but really I was begging him to make it not be true. I was so scared that this would be the end of my dream to bear children. As I sat there stunned and full of self-recrimination,

I remembered that my mother had once mentioned she'd hit menopause at 45 – but 45 still felt very far away from 36. And, frankly, I didn't even really know what menopause meant - except very likely the conclusion of my acting career, which got underway far later than most.

When I'd hit my early 30s, people had started telling me that the time would soon come when I wouldn't be able to play a leading lady any more. Was this the end that had been foretold?