Diane Keaton shared an honest reflection about a decision she avoided throughout her life.
The beloved actress, renowned for her performances in Something’s Gotta Give and Twin Peaks, sadly passed away on October 11 at her residence in California.
Since her passing, heartfelt tributes have been coming in for the stylish 79-year-old, from both admirers and celebrities, including Oscar-winning songwriter Carole Bayer Sager. Sager remembered their last encounter a few weeks before Keaton’s passing, noting that she appeared ‘very thin.’
The cause of Keaton’s death remains unknown, and her mourning family has requested privacy. She leaves behind her two children, Dexter, now 29, and Duke, 25.
An old interview with the Oscar-winning actress has now emerged, shedding light on how Keaton lived her life, as Sager stated she was always ‘on her own terms.’
During a conversation with PEOPLE at her Brentwood home in 2019, Keaton expressed that she hadn’t gained ‘anything’ insightful in her 70s.
“Getting older hasn’t made me wiser,” she remarked.
However, she explained to the publication how she was consistently driven by her own desires and was aware she didn’t seek the most conventional life.
“I knew what I wanted in life, and I went after it,” the then 73-year-old stated. “Being a person who always knew simplifies things — it’s hard to find your way if you don’t.”
Even though she had her share of relationships with some of Hollywood’s leading men, such as Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, and Woody Allen, Keaton never got married.
Marriage was typical for her generation, with an expectation for women to wed, but the Reds star seemed unperturbed.
“Today I was thinking, I’m the only one in my generation of actresses who has been a single woman all her life. I’m really glad I didn’t get married,” she told the publication. “I’m an oddball. I remember in high school, this guy came up to me and said, ‘One day you’re going to make a good wife’.
“And I thought, ‘I don’t want to be a wife. No’.”
She even hinted at some regret regarding her romantic past, reflecting: “When I was young, I was looking to be loved by these extraordinary people.
“I think I should not have been so seduced by talent. When you’re both doing the same job, it’s not so great. I should have found just a nice human being, kind of a family guy.”
In a separate interview with Interview Magazine, Friends star Lisa Kudrow posed a direct question about Keaton’s views on marriage.
Kudrow asked: “Our society has always had an expectation for women to get married, and you’ve said it just hasn’t felt right for you. What informed that feeling?”
Keaton attributed this feeling to her own mother, explaining how marriage meant sacrificing her dreams.
“It goes back to my mother, because, for me, most everything does. I love my dad, of course—that goes without saying—but she was always there, and he was always working.
“I saw how much she gave up,” Keaton continued in part. “I feel like she chose family over her dreams. And she was just the best mother, but I think that she is the reason why I didn’t get married. I didn’t want to give up my independence.
“By the way, no one has ever asked me to marry them, either, so that might be a good answer.”