In Praise of Well-Seasoned Women

Paulina Porizkova and Naomi Watts are changing the national conversation on women and aging. They talk to each other for the first time about sex, loss, and menopause. Yes. there will be tears.

Paulina Porizkova and Naomi Watts should have met much earlier. As a supermodel and author (her new book No Filter: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful came out in November), Porizkova first became famous in the 1980s for being awarded the highest-paid modeling contract at the time and appearing on the cover of multiple magazines, including this one. Shortly before the pandemic, she suddenly lost her husband, and soon became an active chronicler of the process of grieving, aging, and betrayal-all on Instagram, leading the New York Times to call her "Paulina Porizkova, Full-Frontal Emotion."

Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts's work in films such as Birdman, The Impossible, and 21 Grams often has her acting with full-frontal emotions, too, as her characters repeatedly encounter tragedy and loss. Her newest role, as the founder of the menopause beauty brand Stripes, is different in that she actually feels hopeful. "We know all the bad shit. We've felt it; we've done it; we know there's more ahead. But is there any hope? Yes, there is," she says. ELLE brought together Porizkova and Watts over Zoom for an open conversation-over laughter, joy, and mutual appreciation on almost all of society's taboos: mourning, becoming "well-seasoned women," and sex at a certain age (plus a little bit about psychics).-KATHLEEN HOU

NAOMI WATTS: Paulina, I've been following you on Instagram. You're a beautiful writer. You've written a few books now, and you're on to your third?