Queen Latifah turned  menopause into a moment of power and wants other women to feel the same

“Menopause has been a new journey for me,” Queen Latifah reflects as the spokesperson for Weight Watchers’ new menopause program.

For Queen Latifah, menopause was never something she thought she’d have to reckon with so soon. The 55-year-old Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning entertainer admits she was caught off guard when her doctor first told her she was in perimenopause, the transitional period in which the body gets ready to stop having periods and enter menopause.

“I felt pretty normal. I wouldn’t have even known that I was in premenopause, and I was actually kinda shocked,” she told People magazine. “It was her telling me what my numbers were saying. And once I saw that, I could sort of tune into a couple of symptoms I may have been having.”

For Latifah, it wasn’t the sudden sweats people typically hear about, but subtler shifts like arguing with her driver over the car temperature and a stubborn 10 pounds that refused to move. At first, the idea of menopause carried its own quiet fear. But now, she chooses a different word to define this stage of her life: powerful. “I feel like I’m in control when it comes to this,” she explained.

That sense of control is precisely why she’s partnering with WeightWatchers to launch its new “WeightWatchers for Menopause” campaign, a groundbreaking initiative designed to provide women with support, resources, and, most importantly, community.

“It’s important to be able to get as much information as you can so that you can take care of yourself,” she explains. “Whether it’s hormone replacement or other options that are available, I think what WeightWatchers is doing is making sure that they have clinicians there for you, that they have the information there for you, and a supportive community that you may need while going through this. It’s important to have people who do understand.”

The program, developed by leading physicians and menopause specialists, aims to undo decades of stigma and silence around a transition that half the population will experience but few feel prepared for. 

“At the end of the day, it’s a physical change that’s happening and we all want to understand how to deal with it and how to handle it better,” she noted.

Part of Latifah’s ease with the subject comes from the women who have surrounded her for years. 

“Fortunately, I was a young girl running in these streets trying to be grown,” she recalled. “So a lot of my friends are several years older than me, so they experienced this before me. I mean, I’d never really heard the word perimenopause until one of my friends brought it up.” 

And now with platforms like Weight Watchers Menopause, Latifah hopes more women will feel free to talk about what their bodies are teaching them.

“Menopause has been a new journey for me—one that’s changed how I see and care for my body,” Latifah said in a press release. “It’s shown me how important it is for women to have support that truly understands this stage of life. That’s why I’m proud to be the spokesperson for WeightWatchers’ new program.”