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- In 1988, Michelle Yeoh left acting to focus on marriage and starting a family.
- However, she soon learned that she could not have children and split from her then-husband, Dickson Poon.
- The actor said she learned to let go and move forward.
While Michelle Yeoh’s “biggest sadness” in life is not being able to have kids, the actor has no regrets.
In an interview with The Times published on Sunday, Yeoh, 62, opened up about her first marriage to Dickson Poon, a Hong Kong entrepreneur and CEO.
After they married in 1988, Yeoh decided to retire from her acting career.
“It was my choice. I felt that if I wanted this to work I had to give it my all. I’d had a good career, a good run of what I was doing. I was in a very good place and that is the time when you decide what is important. I really wanted to start a family,” said Yeoh, who was in her late 20s and known for performing her own stunts in Hong Kong action films.
However, the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star soon learned she could not have children.
“Maybe that is the biggest sadness in my life, that I cannot have kids,” she told The Times. “But the beauty is that I have six godchildren, many nephews and nieces.”
Yeoh said that she doesn’t live with any regrets. “I have always given it my 110%. I did everything to make it work, and sometimes even that is not enough,” she said, adding, “You have to learn to let go, and sometimes letting go helps you move forward.”
Still, Yeoh knew that Poon wanted kids.
In 2022, Yeoh told Bustle that starting a family had been her “new career move.” After learning that she couldn’t have kids, she and Poon decided to end their marriage. “I didn’t want for us to be bitter 10 years down the road,” Yeoh said.
The couple divorced in 1991, and Yeoh remains the godmother to his eldest daughter.
She explained that in Asian families, children are seen as an extension and legacy of the family. “And when you realize [that you can’t have kids], you have to deal with it,” she said.
Yeoh married Jean Todt, a former Ferrari CEO, last year. In January, she celebrated becoming a grandmother to her stepson’s child.
“Thank you darling Nicolas and Darina for making us the happiest and proudest Grandparents!! Welcome baby Maxime ❤️💖✨❤️💖✨,” she wrote in a post on Instagram in January.
A representative for Yeoh did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Dealing with infertility
In 2022, Kyunghee Kim, an elementary teacher, wrote for BI about how her infertility journey had affected her friendships with other mothers.
“I distanced myself from my closest friends because I could no longer be who I was,” she wrote. Kim said she eventually realized it’s possible to maintain friendships even when you can’t share life changes, such as parenthood. “I try to be honest with my friends and myself. And I allow myself to be loved.”
Mary Anne Bargen, who had undergone four years of IVF, wrote for BI that infertility had taken a toll on her mental health and marriage. “Clinics should be clearer about chances and offer resources and therapy for those who don’t get a happy ending,” she wrote.
Bargen found a therapist who specializes in infertility and an online community, but said that it was important to work on herself.
“And just because we can do hard things doesn’t mean at a certain point we don’t feel like we’ve done enough,” she said.
