Naomi Watts Recalls 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 hot and heavy.

“Hey, if it makes you feel better: I’ve got gray hairs 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’d Known About Menopause.

Watts, 56, shared her menopause journey in the book, 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’d started wearing the patch a couple of years earlier for hormone therapy. I was worried that if he saw it he would realize it meant I was menopausal: no longer a vibrant, fertile being,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, the patch’s adhesive leaves a mark on the skin that’s very hard to get rid of.”

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

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

Eventually, Watts admitted that she was going through menopause and explained the hormone patches.

“A smile broke over his face. He seemed very relieved that the issue 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 — yet different — admission about the aforementioned gray hair.

“Those to date remain the most romantic words I’ve ever heard, onscreen or off, and that includes the script of every movie I’ve ever been in,” Watts continued. “And even this same man’s very loving marriage proposal, which came seven years later.”

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

“Then one day during a sex scene, he spontaneously flung 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 lengthy lighting changes, while we were having a meaningful conversation, we exchanged a look. It was held just a beat too long to be anything other than shared attraction.”

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

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

Dare I Say It is out now.