What Cameron Diaz has said about pregnancy and motherhood
Cameron Diaz has not announced that she’s pregnant, but the tabloids so desperately want a baby in her womb that we suspect the editors at In Touch are sitting in conference right now, clutching hands, trying to manifest it into reality.
Since even before the There’s Something About Mary star, 45, said “I do” to Benji Madden in 2015, there has been pregnancy chatter. The latest rumors come courtesy of the aforementioned tabloid. “They have a baby on the way, and they couldn’t be happier,” a so-called insider purportedly told the mag. “There were some really tough times when she thought motherhood maybe just wasn’t in the cards for her, but she never gave up hope that someday she would become a mom.”
Bad timing with a flowing dress hasn’t helped her case, especially in the wake of her peer Kirsten Dunst’s baby announcement (she was obviously pregnant just waiting for the right time to announce it), or the fact that we’re see more women over 40 become pregnant, in Hollywood and the real world.
While The Body Book author’s previous romances — including with Justin Timberlake, A-Rod, and Jared Leto — were super high-profile, her marriage just isn’t, and that is of her doing. She has largely been out of the spotlight, not really working on movies, and treating social media as an annual event (though we catch her on Benji’s now and then). While insiders have whispered that she has wanted to start a family since she got hitched — even legit sources like People and Us Weekly — she hasn’t exactly said that for herself. Here’s what she has on the topic through the years:
Diaz, 36, to Cosmo U.K. in July 2009: “I think women are afraid to say that they don’t want children because they’re going to get shunned,” she said. “But I think that’s changing too now. I have more girlfriends who don’t have kids than those that do. And honestly? We don’t need any more kids. We have plenty of people on this planet.” However, she added, “I never say never. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I could end up adopting half a dozen kids, or I could end up being the next Octo-mom — who frickin’ knows?”
Diaz, 37, to InStyle in June 2010: “I’m not opposed to it happening. Having children changes your life drastically, and I really love my life,” she said. “Children aren’t the only things that bring you gratification and happiness, and it’s easier to give life than to give love. So I don’t know. That kind of change would have to be either very well thought out, or a total mistake — a real oops!”
Diaz, 39, to InStyle in April 2012: “Society definitely puts pressure on women to make them think their lives should go a certain way,” said the actress during her press tour to promote What to Expect When You’re Expecting. “I’ve never said I don’t want children — I just haven’t had children yet. I don’t know what’s going to happen in my life! I could end up adopting children. I could end up with a partner who already has children. Who knows? I’m not trying to fit into anyone’s box about how I should be. I just fit in my own box.”
Diaz to Harper’s Bazaar U.K. in May 2012: “I’m not sitting there going, ‘Oh my God, when am I going to get married? When am I going to have a baby?'” she said. “I would be remiss if I was living my life wishing I had something other than what I have. If one day I am blessed with the experience of having a child, I would be overjoyed, but I am not sitting here feeling empty because I haven’t yet, or that I may not.”
Diaz to Redbook the same month: “I thought I was going to be married and have two children by the time I was 21,” she said. “I think I felt I had to model my life after my mother’s. But then my career was starting to take off and there were still so many things I wanted to do. So that dream for me was shattered early on. After that I never put another time line on anything in my life.”
Diaz on Chelsea Lately the same month: “I just kind of like how things unravel and life kind of reveals itself to you. And I’ve just never been in the place where I was like, ‘Right now is the time I’m supposed to have a baby,'” Diaz said. “But I do want my own family eventually, however that comes to me, whether it’s through adoption or [through another method].”
More from that conversation:
Diaz, 41, to the U.K.’s Telegraph in April 2014: “I’ve never said never to anything in life. If I wanted kids, at any point in life, I would have them,” she said. “But I’m certain that if at any point I wanted a child, that child would find its way into my life, whether through adoption, or through being in a relationship with somebody who has a child. I can’t see the future, but one thing I do know is that I’m not childless. I have a ton of children in my life. I can have a kid any second, if I want. All my friends would be like, ‘Sure, come and get them.'” She continued, “I also, by the way, have a lot of girl friends who don’t have children. It’s not like I’m the spinster who didn’t have a child. I just didn’t do that in life, and I’m OK with that. I know the choices I made. I know why I made them. I’m very much a person who lives in the moment. When you come from where I do, there are so many ways my life could have gone.”
Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden:
A post shared by Benji Madden (@benjaminmadden) on Aug 30, 2017 at 3:34pm PDT
Diaz to Esquire in July 2014: “It’s so much more work to have children. To have lives besides your own that you are responsible for — I didn’t take that on,” she said. “That did make things easier for me. A baby — that’s all day, every day for 18 years. … Not having a baby might really make things easier, but that doesn’t make it an easy decision. I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother. I have it much easier than any of them. That’s just what it is. Doesn’t mean life isn’t sometimes hard. I’m just what I am. I work on what I am. Right now, I think, things are good for me. I’ve done a lot. And I don’t care anymore.”
Diaz, 42, to Marie Claire in Oct. 2014: “I’m not looking for a husband or marriage or not not looking for that stuff,” she said amid rumors she was engaged to the Good Charlotte singer, whom she started dating a few months earlier. “I’m living, not thinking what I should or shouldn’t be doing with my life. … We live in a society where everyone has kids, so they want other people to have kids. There is this culture that says celebrities are supposed to be just like us, so people think, ‘I have children, why doesn’t she?’ But I’m not going to do something because it’s expected. If a family happens, then it happens. If children come to me, then I would do that, but I’m not someone who feels like she has to do something because it’s expected.”
Diaz, who hadn’t been keen on marriage either, became Madden’s wife just a couple months later on Jan. 5, 2015. And since there have been countless reports about how she “wants to be a mom,” according to People. Just last month, Us Weekly reported that they have “tried everything from IVF to acupuncture and supplements to conceive — to no avail,” noting that “it’s been a long, hard struggle with many ups and downs.”
And if she wants to share those ups and down with the world — or any baby news — we’re sure she will. On her own terms. After all, like she said, she just fits in her own box.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
