KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Oscar-winning Malaysian actor Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh has opened up about the unexpected turns in her life, from a career-ending injury to marrying at 60 after a 19-year engagement.

In an interview with The Guardian, the 64-year-old described her early setback at 17, when a back injury while studying ballet in England shattered her dream of becoming a professional dancer.

She compared the moment to looking into a “mirror that shatters,” recalling how she thought her life was over.

It was her principal at the Hammond school, Mrs Hammond, who helped her pivot, telling her to “calm down, crazy little girl” and reminding her she could still be involved in dance.

Yeoh went on to earn a degree in creative arts at what is now Manchester Metropolitan University, an experience she said later helped her in martial arts.

Her entry into acting was also unplanned, coming after her mother secretly submitted her photos for the Miss Malaysia pageant, which she won in 1983.

This exposure led to a career in Hong Kong cinema and eventually Hollywood.

Yeoh’s first marriage, to billionaire Hong Kong businessman Dickson Poon, lasted four years before ending amicably in 1992.

She has described it as a “failure” that freed her to return to acting, noting that she had stopped working during that time, a hangover from her more conservative upbringing — a mistake she did not repeat in her second marriage.

That second marriage would come decades later, to former Ferrari chief Jean Todt, now 80, with whom she has shared a long and steady partnership. 

She revealed that Todt told her it was love at first sight when he saw her “walking down some steps in Shanghai in 2004.”

The pair met in Paris shortly after and maintained a long-distance relationship for a time, with Todt needing his friends’ help to learn how to text.

“I really liked the guy,” Yeoh told The Guardian. “Very straightforward, honest, all that.”

Two months after they met, Todt proposed, and she accepted.

They remained engaged for 19 years before finally marrying in 2023, a decision Yeoh attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a Malaysian passport holder, she had no automatic right to travel to Switzerland to see him unless they were married.

They eventually married on July 27, 2023, in an intimate ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.

The news was first shared by former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa, who posted photos from the wedding on Instagram. 

Yeoh later shared her own behind-the-scenes pictures on Instagram, writing, “19 years and YES!! we are married!!”.

Reflecting on her life’s trajectory, Yeoh offered a simple philosophy: “Life is like a heartbeat. It’s up and down, up and down.”