There’s no denying that Meg Ryan ruled the ’90s as the queen of romantic comedies. From "When Harry Met Sally" to "You’ve Got Mail," she became a household name, delivering hit after hit. But as the years went by, even Meg admits that the pressure of maintaining her star status became overwhelming. Let’s dive into her journey, her reflections, and what’s next for this iconic actress.

In a recent conversation with The New York Times Magazine, the 57-year-old opened up about how she didn’t fully capitalize on her box-office clout during her peak. "I don’t think I took advantage of the power I had," she confessed. "If you have box-office power, you can create opportunities for yourself. That was a chit I’d earned, but I didn’t work it." She went on to explain how life became exhausting when she was juggling motherhood, acting, and producing. "Somewhere in the middle of my time in Hollywood, I did have a production company and produced movies, but it felt overwhelming. I had a baby, I was acting, and they were giving me scripts to produce in various stages of development when I was getting scripts to act in that were ready." Meg pondered, "What is this thing about having it all? Why do we want that? Don’t we just want to be happy in our independent pursuits?"

Meg Ryan’s Turning Point: The Impact of Public Scrutiny

Meg Ryan also shared how her perspective shifted after facing public scrutiny during her relationship with Russell Crowe in 2000, just a year before her divorce from Dennis Quaid. "That was another big turning point in my evolution. I’d never felt like I was all that concerned with what people thought of me, but then that story never got told right," she recalled. "The story of how I was divorced or what the actual problems were. It’s a real gift when you know you can’t ever really manage an image or a story and you stop caring." She added, "I felt the effect, like I was the bad guy or whatever the story was. But I remember letting go of needing to correct anybody." Meg emphasized, "Divorce is hard. Love is hard. All those things were so personal. They weren’t for mass consumption. The complexity of a life or a marriage is never going to exist in a headline or a tabloid. That was a freeing thing to know! Though fame has become so democratized now."