The late Diane Keaton chose an unconventional path to parenthood when she adopted her children well into her 50s — and was candid about the reason behind her decision.
“I didn’t think that I was ever going to be prepared to be a mother,” Keaton — who died at the age of 79 on Saturday, October 11 — previously told Ladies’ Home Journal. “Motherhood was not an urge I couldn’t resist. It was more like a thought I’d been thinking for a very long time. So I plunged in.”
Keaton welcomed daughter Dexter, 29, and son Duke, 25, via adoption and as a single mom in her 50s. While Keaton never married during her tenured and prestigious film career, she did date a few famous faces, including Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino.
In 2019, the Something’s Gotta Give actress opened up to People about her decision to never take a walk down the wedding aisle.
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“Today I was thinking about this — I’m 71 and I think I’m the only one in my generation, and maybe before, who has been a single woman all her life,” she told the outlet at the time, before adding that it would “not have been a good idea for me to have married.”
“I’m really glad I didn’t, and I’m sure they’re happy about it too,” she added, referring to her Hollywood exes.
Later, in 2023, the actress once again reiterated that she was happy to live life as a single mom.
“I don’t date,” she told AARP The Magazine at the time, while insisting that it was “highly unlikely” that she would find herself in another romantic relationship in the future. “I don’t remember anyone calling me, going, ‘This is So-and-So, I’d like to take you out.’ They don’t happen. Of course not.”
The famed actress went on to explain her longstanding stance on marriage – a mindset she established when she was a teen.
“I remember one day in high school, this guy came up to me and said, ‘One day you’re going to make a good wife,’” she said. “And I thought, ‘ I don’t want to be a wife. No.’”
While Keaton’s family asked for privacy in the wake of her death, many of her costars and fellow Hollywood stars paid tribute to the late actress.
“The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died,” Keaton’s The First Wives’ Club costar Bette Midler shared via Instagram on Saturday. “She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was … oh, la, lala!”
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Keaton’s former Father of the Bride costars also paid tribute to the late actress.
“This breaks my heart. Getting to work with Diane Keaton will always be one of the highlights of my life,” Kimberly Williams-Paisley — who famously played Keaton’s daughter in the iconic films — wrote in the comments section of People‘s Instagram post announcing the actress’ death, alongside a red heart emoji.
Steve Martin, who played Keaton’s husband, the anxiety-ridden George Banks, in the films, also responded to the late actress’s death.
“Loved!” Martin, 80, wrote via X on Saturday, , alongside a black and white throwback photo of a young Keaton.
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