Halle Berry says she won't back Newsom for president after he vetoed menopause bill, ignored her for a month

Halle Berry declared Monday that California Governor Gavin Newsom has lost her support for any future presidential run—and she's not being quiet about why.

The Oscar-winning actress told The Cut that Newsom promised to follow up with her after she confronted him for vetoing California's Menopause Care Act last year. More than a month later, he still hasn't called.

Berry's message to the governor was blunt:

"Wake up, Gavin."

A Promise Made, A Promise Broken

The feud traces back to December 2025, when Berry publicly criticized Newsom at the New York Times DealBook Summit for killing AB 432, a bill that would have mandated insurance coverage for menopause treatments. At 58, Berry has become one of Hollywood's most vocal advocates on the issue.

At the summit, she didn't mince words, according to the New York Post:

"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. Just saying."

Newsom's team responded at the time by saying the governor appreciated Berry's advocacy and suggested the two were on a path to reconciliation. Berry says she confronted him directly about the veto. He promised to follow up. He didn't.

More than a month passed with no call, no meeting, no follow-through. Berry told The Cut exactly what she thinks of that:

"It's disturbing when people say they're going to do things and then don't."

Newsom's Office Fires Back

The governor's spokesperson called Berry's remarks "very unfortunate" in a statement to The Post on Monday:

"Ms. Berry's remarks are very unfortunate given the governor's proposal put forward today to support menopause care through the state budget, just as he said he would do in his veto message on AB 432."

The timing is notable. Newsom's office announced a new budget proposal on the same day Berry's criticism went public—a proposal to mandate that health care plans cover FDA-approved menopause treatments, including hormone-replacement therapy. The mandate would apply to new or renewed policies after July 1.

So Newsom vetoed the bill. Then, after weeks of public criticism from a celebrity with a platform, he announced he'd accomplish the same thing through the budget. The question voters should ask: Would this proposal exist without Berry's pressure campaign?

The Pattern of Performative Politics

This episode captures something essential about Newsom's political style. He vetoes legislation, faces backlash, then scrambles to address the issue through alternative means while his team calls critics "unfortunate."

Berry warned that Newsom can't afford to take women for granted if he's serious about 2028:

"But he heard what I said. If he is going to run to be our next president, he can't sleep on women."

She's right about his ambitions. Newsom is widely expected to run for president in 2028, hoping to restore Democratic control of the White House after Kamala Harris's failed campaign. But his path runs through a primary electorate that will scrutinize exactly this kind of behavior—saying one thing, doing another, then blaming critics for noticing.

What This Reveals About Newsom

The substance of the menopause care debate matters less here than what the controversy exposes about Newsom as a political figure.

Consider the sequence:

• Legislature passes bill
• Newsom vetoes it
• Celebrity confronts him publicly
• Newsom promises to follow up personally
• Newsom doesn't follow up for over a month
• Celebrity goes public again
• Newsom's office announces budget proposal on the same day
• Newsom's office calls the celebrity's remarks "very unfortunate"

This is governance by damage control. The governor didn't prioritize the issue until it became a political liability. He didn't keep his promise to Berry until ignoring her became a story. And when called out, his team's instinct was to frame the critic as the problem.

That last part deserves attention. Berry advocated for a cause, got a promise from the governor, waited patiently for more than a month, and then spoke up when he failed to deliver. The response from Newsom's office wasn't an apology for the broken promise. It was disappointment that she dared to mention it.

The 2028 Question

Newsom wants to be president. Everyone in Sacramento knows it. Everyone in Washington knows it. The hair, the national media appearances, the feuds with Republican governors—it's all part of the rollout.

But presidential campaigns expose weaknesses that state politics can paper over. In California, Newsom benefits from a legislature dominated by his own party and a media environment largely sympathetic to Democrats. He can veto bills, reverse course, and spin the narrative without much resistance.

A national campaign offers no such cushion. Opponents will catalog every broken promise, every policy reversal, every instance where Newsom's words didn't match his actions. Halle Berry just handed them a template.

Berry isn't a conservative. She's not making an ideological argument against Newsom's policies. She's making a character argument: this man says things he doesn't mean and doesn't follow through on his commitments. That's the kind of criticism that transcends partisan lines.

Why This Story Matters

At first glance, a celebrity feud with a governor over menopause coverage sounds like tabloid fodder. But Berry has identified something that will define Newsom's political future: the gap between his rhetoric and his record.

He presents himself as a champion of progressive causes, yet he vetoed a bill his own party's legislature passed. He promised a constituent—an influential one, but a constituent nonetheless—that he would address her concerns, then went silent for over a month. When she spoke up, his team called her remarks "unfortunate" rather than acknowledging the broken promise.

This is the Newsom experience distilled. Grand statements. Polished performances. And somewhere between the promise and the delivery, the follow-through disappears.

She's given him fair warning. Whether he wakes up is another question entirely.