Actress Emma Watson is embracing being single as she approaches her 30th birthday, coining the term “self-partnered” to describe her relationship status.
Watson, 29, spoke with British Vogue about the pressures of turning 30 for the publication’s December issue. She admitted to feeling “stressed and anxious” about her upcoming April birthday and discussed the “fuss” surrounding the milestone.
“If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out,” she said, “there’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.”
Watson added that she never really bought into the idea that one could be single and happy until recently, embracing the term “self-partnered” instead.
“I was like, ‘This is totally spiel.’ It took me a long time, but I’m very happy [being single],” she said. “I call it being self-partnered.”
The Harry Potter actress is set to star as Margaret “Meg” March in the upcoming film Little Women, alongside Laura Dern and Meryl Streep, whom she had previously met through activism.
“The three of us knew each other way before we did Little Women,” Watson said. “We met in activist spaces, so we had this allyship and solidarity as activists that had been part of a certain movement before we ever worked together.”
Watson has championed gender equality as part of her activism, launching He for She in 2014, which promotes gender equality worldwide. She is also a United Nations goodwill ambassador.
