SAVED BY HER KIDS
THE STAR FINDS HAPPINESS IN HER MOST IMPORTANT ROLE EVER: MOTHERHOOD
Dressed in combat boots and one of her trademark suits, Diane Keaton beams from the center of a new L’Oréal ad celebrating “fresh, creative, confident” women. Even surrounded by females half her age, she radiates self-possession and the adorable quirkiness that caused the world to fall for her in Annie Hall.
But while her four-decade-long career has made Diane, 71, an icon, she confides she’s no stranger to self-doubt — even today. “It’s in the DNA,” she says. “But I’m going to fight it. I’m going to keep going.” Diane credits her children, daughter Dexter, 21, and son Duke, 16, for helping her rise above her insecurities. Without them, a friend tells Closer, “She said she probably would have crawled so deeply into herself she’d be an emotional mess by now.”
Finding her confidence wasn’t easy. “Diane never felt like the prettiest girl in the room,” reveals the friend, but her mother “encouraged her to take on the world.” After venturing into acting and battling bulimia, which she calls “a horrible problem — ugly and awful,” she entered therapy, which helped her control her anxieties, and she built an Oscarwinning acting career, starring in films like The Godfather and Reds. She’s embraced being single —
“It took me 50 years to find motherhood and unconditional love.”
— Diane
despite high-profile romances with co-stars Al Pacino and Warren Beatty — but Diane realized she didn’t want to miss out on motherhood. That feeling especially hit home when her father, who died in 1990 of brain cancer, confided his life’s regrets to her, which made her reconsider her own choices. Six years later, at 50, she adopted Dexter, followed by Duke. “If her dad hadn’t told Diane about his missed opportunities,” says the friend, “she may never have become a mother.”
A FRESH START
Becoming a later-in-life mom suits unconventional Diane. “She’s probably one of the few 70-somethings who can belt the lyrics to a Kanye West song!” says her friend. In return, her children have brought the star the love she has always craved. “After a lifetime avoiding intimacy, I suddenly got intimate in a big way,” she laughs. Motherhood “completely changed me,” she adds. “My feeling is that with children, you really have to be your best self, always.”
Now Diane’s life is richer than ever. Her latest film, Hampstead, is due out this year. She is also an author, photographer, winemaker and a benefactor to brain health charities. “She’s gotten the kids interested in photography,” says the friend. “She believes the more they can do together as a family, the better.”
Though she hasn’t given up on romance, Diane finds true contentment in her role of mother. “I spent too long worrying about whether a man loved me or not,” she concedes. “I found that raising a child was the most humanizing of all loves. It is unconditional.”