Halle Berry eviscerates Gavin Newsom for ‘devaluing’ women

Halle Berry went off on Gov. Gavin Newsom in a fiery speech, claiming he doesn’t value women and he shouldn’t be the next president.

“Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed our menopause bill, not one but two years in a row,” the Oscar winning actress said onstage at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“But that’s OK, because he’s not going to be governor forever, and the way he has overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us, he probably should not be our next president either,” she added as Newsom, 58, took the stage at the same event later that day.

Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, told The Post on Wednesday that he “has deep admiration for Ms. Berry’s advocacy and looks forward to working with her and other stakeholders on this critical issue.”

“He shares her goal of expanding access to menopause care that too many women struggle to get.” 

“He vetoed the bill because, as written, it would have unintentionally raised health care costs for millions of working women already stretched thin — something he’s determined to avoid.”

Gardon continued, “We’re confident that by working together this year, we can expand access to essential menopause treatment while protecting women from higher bills.” 

Page Six has reached out to representatives for Berry and Newsom.

The “Die Another Day” actress — who has been an outspoken advocate for menopausal women in recent years — has championed the Menopause Care Equity Act.

The bipartisan bill, which Newsom vetoed in October, would have required all-encompassing health insurance coverage for women seeking treatment in their menopausal and perimenopausal years.

The bill also would have required physicians to receive menopause-related education on an ongoing basis, and the California Medical Board to create a menopause-based curriculum to that end.

The actress, 59, previously shared that she was misdiagnosed with herpes during her perimenopausal years — typically between the mid forties and fifties for most women, leading up to menopause, per the Mayo Clinic.

During a February appearance on the “Drew Barrymore Show,” Berry recalled experiencing vaginal dryness while dating Van Hunt, leading to painful sex and extreme discomfort while urinating.

The “Catwoman” star recalled Hunt, 54, driving her to a doctor because she was “so swollen.”

After the doctor told her she had “a really bad case of herpes,” Berry recalled “72 hours” of bickering with Hunt over who was to blame for the faulty diagnosis.

The doctor eventually called Berry to set the record straight. “He said, ‘You do not have herpes,’” she told Barrymore.

“And I was like, ‘OK then, what is it?’ And this was the defining moment for me, he said, ‘I don’t know, that’s what it looked like.’”

“And that sent me on my own reconnaissance and my own researching and that’s when I came up with Dry Vagina Syndrome, that women have when they are in perimenopause,” Berry divulged. “And I had all the symptoms of what that felt like.”

She previously recalled the incident in 2024, telling Dr. Jill Biden that “I realized after the fact that is a symptom of perimenopause,” during A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit in Los Angeles.

“My doctor had no knowledge and didn’t prepare me, that’s when I knew, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to use my platform, I have to use all of who I am and I have to start making a change and a difference for other women.’”

Berry ultimately launched the Respin platform, which educates and provides information about the menopause process for mature women.

“I felt like there was something really missing in the market for women in midlife,” Berry told Time magazine in February.

In March, Berry declared that women should celebrate the milestone of no longer having a monthly period.

“When a woman realizes that she’s in the menopause — you know, 365 days, and you know you’re in it — it is their duty to give that woman a ‘shiesta’ to celebrate her, like we do every other milestone in our life,” Berry told podcast host  Tamsen Fadal’ during an episode of “The Tamsen Show.”