Diane Kruger became a mother at 42 — and wouldn’t have it any other way.
In a new interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the German actress, who shares a 3-year-old daughter with fiancé Norman Reedus, opened up about enjoying first-time motherhood in her 40s.
“I am so glad I did not have a kid at 30,” the 45-year-old star said. “I think I would have absolutely resented it for all the things that you have to give up, because today I am happy to do so. I have been to every party, I have been to every country that I wanted to visit. So I’m 100 percent ready and willing to give my kid that attention. But at 30, I know I would not have been ready to do this properly.”
Currently starring in the women-led action thriller The 355, Kruger admitted that she wasn’t sure if she’d ever have kids. Divorced from French actor and director Guillaume Canet — now the partner of Oscar winner Marion Cotillard — in 2006 and fresh from a decade-long relationship with actor Joshua Jackson, Kruger started dating her Sky co-star Reedus in 2016, welcoming their daughter two years later.
“She was definitely a surprise,” Kruger noted. “I sort of had given up on the idea of that happening. And then you know, things happen.”
She and Reedus, 52, are now engaged, though marrying again was another thing Kruger had ruled out.
“I can’t even put my finger on what’s changed, because I’ve definitely said, ‘I’m never getting married again,'” she shared. “And who knows when we’re going to get married. But just the symbolism of that ring. It’s like a family heirloom, you know, because it’s going to be hers one day. I still look at my ring and think, ‘Wow, this is crazy!'”
Kruger described Reedus as a devoted father to their little girl, sharing, “He is completely under her thumb. When he’s around it’s like, ‘Papa, Papa, Papa!’ They’re very cute together.”
The Walking Dead actor is also father to 22-year-old son Mingus, with whom he shares with his ex-girlfriend Helena Christensen. But Kruger, who met the Danish supermodel before she met Reedus, resists the idea of being considered a stepmother.
“He was 16 when I met him,” she pointed out. “He doesn’t live with his dad, so I would only see him sporadically. I’m not his stepmom… we’re friends. … And you know, they have been split up for 16 years or something. So there is no weirdness.”
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