Julia Roberts has revealed that she is finally content with her life.
Roberts was the first woman to make as much money as her male counterparts in the 2000s
She now considers herself a homemaker for her husband and children.
Julia Roberts was one of the biggest names in film in the 2000s, with acting credits in “Pretty Woman” and “Erin Brockovich,” but her love life did not always go as smoothly as her professional life.
Roberts had many failed relationships and was even touted as “The Runaway Bride” because she abandoned her wedding day. However, she has now settled down and is happier than ever.
Roberts met her husband, Danny Moder, on the set of a movie they were working on together. It was then that Roberts thought what she did for a living was silly and was somewhat embarrassed to do it in front of Moder.
However, the couple’s love story began unfolding on that set and has been going strong ever since. In fact, Julia has confessed that she is finally happy in her life and content with her husband and children.
The couple has been together for 20 years and is still as in love as when they first began dating. Roberts told Gayle King that she still got butterflies whenever she thought of her husband of two decades.
King said it was terrific that Roberts still felt that way about her husband so far into their relationship. Roberts has spoken highly of Moder in many other interviews, crediting him with their beautiful life.
Roberts became the first woman to be paid as much as her male counterparts in the 2000s. It happened on the set of “Erin Brockovich,” where Roberts demanded the wage gap between her and her male coworkers be closed.
Yet, being the woman who closed the wage gap on set is not what made Roberts happy. Instead, being married to the man she truly loved turned her world around for the better.
Talking to Oprah Winfrey about why she was so happy and finally content with her life, Roberts confessed:
“A huge part of it is my marriage. My husband, Danny, has really shined the light for me. Because of being married, I’ve met people and experienced all these little things that have nurtured my life—not so much changed it, just nurtured it in a way that’s astounding.”
Roberts’ marriage allowed her to find what was truly important to her, and because of this, she made drastic decisions about her career in acting and what she wanted to do with her family.
For many years Roberts did not appear in another acting role. Instead, she raised her family and watched her husband go off to work. She used the time to build her family and their lives together.
Roberts Put Her Career on Hold
Talking about her family life to the New York Times, Roberts revealed that she took a break from her career partly because she couldn’t find a project she was eager to work on and partly because of her family’s schedule.
The actress mentioned that she had to consider her husband’s work schedule as well as her children’s schedules before she could make any drastic decisions about accepting a new role.
She also confessed that she considered herself a homemaker during the years when she was not working. She focused on raising her children and being there for them when their father could not be.
Roberts said that she was never far from her children when they were growing up and took her job as a mother very seriously. She was only gone for the length of one of their naps.
She almost didn’t accept a role in a movie because it would have coincided with her youngest starting school. However, she revealed that as her children got older, she felt she owed it to them to show them how creative she could be.
Moder Encouraged Roberts to Get Back into Acting
Roberts admitted that coming to terms with being a mother was difficult for her because she did not want to leave her children. It was Moder who told her that she would have to do it eventually and that it was okay to do so.
She felt the sense of responsibility to show her children her creativity but was scared to take the leap back into acting until Moder convinced her that it would be okay for her to explore that part of her life again.
Talking about the conversation she had with her husband, she said it was the female plight to feel guilty for having interests outside of the family and wanting to explore other avenues to bring happiness to themselves.
When she finally returned to acting, she said that she did not make decisions about which roles to take based on what she thought people would think, but instead, she made her decisions based on whether or not she enjoyed the script.
She also said that her advice to any young person in a similar situation to her would be not to take advice from actors. She said that each person’s experience of the job should be different.
Roberts has recently worked on a project with George Clooney, which is a rom-com. Although Roberts hasn’t had a rom-com role in years, she has said that she is excited to be able to flex those muscles again.
She talked about the role with the New York Times, saying she was excited. She admitted:
“You get into that mode of those endorphins going off when you’re clever and people going, “Oh!” Then that becomes this automatic thing where you’re always thinking in terms of creating fun. It’s a joy to play in that sandbox. It has been a long time.”
However, she mentioned that she tended to accept heavier roles during this part of her career because she was older and could understand that things were not always rosy in the world.
She also admitted that part of accepting the heavier roles was that she was living a happy life and found it redundant to act in a role where she was living a happy life. She said she found it more challenging to tap into the more serious parts.
The last thing that Roberts revealed in her New York Times interview was that she was not interested in aligning herself with who people thought she was and instead was focused on her children and her husband.