Naomi Watts recalls a conversation with Billy Crudup about ball hair

Billy Crudup had some “romantic” words for Naomi Watts the first time they slept together – but they had nothing to do with keeping things warm and heavy.

“Hey, if it makes you feel better: I have gray hair on my balls,” Crudup, 56, told Watts the first time they slept together, according to her book Dare I say it: Everything I wish I had known about menopause.

Watts, 56, shared her menopause transition in the book, which was released on Tuesday, January 21. Part memoir, part informative guide, the book details Watts’ experience with hormone patches – which is where this particular story came in.

“I had started wearing the patch a few years earlier for hormone therapy. I was worried that if he saw it, he would realize it meant I was in menopause: no longer a living, fertile being,” she wrote “Unfortunately, the patch’s adhesive leaves a mark on the skin that is very difficult to get rid of.”

While at Crudup’s home that fateful night, Watts wrote that she “tore off (the hormone patch) and scrubbed the skin raw.” Crudup asked if she was okay in the bathroom because things were taking so long.

“I came out horrified,” Watts recounted in the book. “I stumbled and reached for words, but nothing would quite come out.”

Eventually, Watts admitted she was in menopause and explained the hormone patches.

“A smile broke across his face. He seemed very relieved that the problem wasn’t a lack of desire,” Watts recalled. “He told me he thought it was great, I was taking care of myself, and he asked me , how he could help.”

Crudup then offered a similar – though different – admission about the aforementioned gray hair.

“They are still, to this day, the most romantic words I’ve ever heard, on screen or off, and that includes the script for every movie I’ve ever been in,” Watts continued. “And even this same man’s very loving marriage proposal that came seven years later.”

Related: Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup Relationship Timeline

Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup have continued to build a strong foundation in their romance over the years. The couple met in 2017, a year after Watts and Liev Schreiber ended their 11-year relationship. The exes share sons Sasha and Kai. At the time, Watts spoke, standing with Schreiber. “I’m single. I’m a co-parent,” she (…)

Watts met Crudup on the set of Gypsya 2017 Netflix series in which she starred as “a horny, sociopathic therapist.” While filming sex scenes together, things were initially just friendly between them.

“Then one day during a sex scene, he spontaneously threw a pillow across the room while ravishing me with such passion that I blushed and broke character,” Watts wrote. “Soon after, during one of those long light shifts, while we were having a meaningful conversation, we exchanged a glance. It was held just a beat too long to be anything other than shared attraction.”

Their flirtatious relationship began to blossom in 2017, with Us Weekly confirmed in August of that year that Watts and Crudup were dating. They tied the knot in a low-key New York City ceremony in June 2023.

“Loving him is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself,” Watts wrote in her book.

Dare I say it is out now.