Cameron Diaz Reveals Why She Left Hollywood: ‘They Own You’
Charlie’s Angel star Cameron Diaz hasn’t been seen on the big screen since her role as Miss Hannigan in the 2014 film Annie. Diaz married musician Benji Madden in January 2015, and the couple welcomed daughter Raddix in January 2020.
In a recent conversation with fellow celeb and BFF Gwyneth Paltrow, Diaz shares some details on why she decided to step out of the spotlight.
‘Annie’ star welcomes baby girl
Kicking off 2020, Diaz announced Raddix’s arrival on social media, adding that they would be not be sharing any pics of their newest family member.
“We are so happy, blessed and grateful to begin this new decade by announcing the birth of our daughter, Raddix Madden. She has instantly captured our hearts and completed our family,” The Mask star wrote on Instagram. “While we are overjoyed to share this news, we also feel a strong instinct to protect our little one’s privacy. So we won’t be posting pictures or sharing any more details, other than the fact she is really, really cute. Some might even say RAD.”
The Bad Teacher star is clearly enjoying motherhood, telling pal and Who What Wear CEO Katherine Power in an Instagram Live interview the joy she’s discovering as a parent.
“I love being a mother. It’s the best, best, best part of my life,” Diaz shared, according to Entertainment Tonight. “I’m so, so grateful and so happy and it’s the best thing ever and I’m so lucky to get to do it with Benji and we’re just having the best time. It’s so great. I’m just thrilled.”
Cameron Diaz chats with Gwyneth Paltrow
While many would assume that Diaz had it all as an A-list actress, she revealed to Paltrow that leaving Hollywood was a huge benefit to her personal life.
“I got a peace in my soul, because I finally was taking care of myself,” she told the Iron Man star during a YouTube episode of In Goop Health: The Sessions. “It’s a strange thing to say. I know a lot of people won’t understand it. I know you understand it.”
Diaz explained that as a celebrity, she had lost control over her life and wanted to reclaim ownership of herself.
“When you’re making a movie… they own you,” the Vanilla Sky star said. “You’re there 12 hours a day, for months on end. You have no time for anything else. And I realized I handed off parts of my life to all these other people. They took it. I had to basically take it back and take responsibility for my own life.”
Cameron Diaz chose to take care of herself
Diaz described how superstars have nearly all aspects of their lives tended to by outsiders and handlers, which motivated her to change paths.
“Actors are infantilized,” she told Paltrow. “Overwhelmingly, your life just becomes so narrow. Everybody’s doing things for you, and you’re catered around, and I never felt really, truly comfortable with that. That wasn’t my comfort zone, to be taken care of.”
The Shrek star shifted her priorities and is now in charge of her own life, which includes her role as wife and mother.
“I really needed to know that I could take care of myself and that I knew how to be an adult and I knew how to navigate the world of the complexity of being an adult and having responsibility and putting all the pieces of my life together the way that I wanted it to be put together, not how other people thought it should go,” she continued. “I said, ‘How do I want my life to function? Where do I want to go?’ And I’m the architect of that.”
