Why Diane Keaton decided to wait until middle age to raise her two children
Diane Keaton chose to become a mother in her 50s when she adopted two children and began raising them on her own.
Before her shocking death at the age of 79 on Saturday, October 11, she was a doting mother to daughter Dexter and son Duke, both now adults.
She never married and chose to raise her 29-year-old daughter and 25-year-old son as a single mother.
She once revealed that she had ‘thought about’ becoming a mother a lot and had decided not to wait for a partner until she felt completely ready to step into that role.
“I was never going to be ready to be a mother,” she told Ladies’ Home Journal in 2008, according to People.
‘Motherhood was not an urge I could not resist,’ she continued. ‘This was more like an idea I’ve been thinking about for a long time. So I dived in.’
Diane Keaton chose to become a mother in her 50s when she adopted two children and began raising them on her own.
When she was in her 50s, she never married and chose to adopt children; painted in 1996
The Godfather star, famous for Al Palcino, also once announced his decision not to get married and explained that he had been sure of this since a young age.
“I think I’m the only person in my generation, and maybe even before, who has been a single woman her whole life,” she said.
She had previously dated Pacino as well as Warren Beatty and Annie Hall director Woody Allen, but she deliberately chose not to reconcile with any of them.
“It wouldn’t be a good idea for me to get married,” she said, before admitting that a wife wasn’t a role she wanted to play.
‘I remember one day in high school, this guy came up to me and said, ‘You’ll be a good wife one day.’
‘And I said, ‘I don’t want to be a wife. ‘No,’ I thought. “I’m really glad I didn’t do that and I’m sure they’re happy about it too,” he said, talking about his famous exes.
Although she did not want to be a wife in real life, many of her most famous roles explored the theme of motherhood through marriage.
She played this role in the 1996 drama film The First Wives Club, starring alongside Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn.
Before her shocking death at the age of 79, she was a doting mother to her now-adult daughter Dexter and son Duke; Filmed in August 2022
She once revealed that she had ‘thought’ a lot about being a mother and had decided not to wait for a partner until she felt completely ready to step into that role; Filmed in July 2023
In 2007, Keaton also opened up about raising children in Hollywood; especially since his children prefer to stay away from the limelight and express no interest in becoming an actor like him; Filmed in September 2023
Their children only make public appearances on rare occasions, as they did to support their mother at the Hand and Footprint Ceremony held at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theater in August 2022. When asked how he felt being around them at such an event, he simply replied: ‘Everything. I love them’
In 1991, she starred in the film Father of the Bride, the former with Steve Martin, and she with the latter.
In 2005, she told Life Magazine how she had settled into the role of motherhood after adopting her second child and welcoming her son into the home four years earlier.
‘The shocking thing is that I worry differently now. If I worried before the kids it was only about myself, but as a parent all you do is worry. It’s the number one rule in parenting: Worry secretly without letting the kids know you’re worried.’
Her eldest daughter married her now-husband, Jordan White, in 2021.
For the special occasion, Keaton wore cream-colored pants along with his signature hat and glasses. He graduated from Carrington College California-Pomona with an associate’s degree in veterinary technology, according to the release.
As for his son, Duke seems to have shown an early passion for photography when he was little.
In 2009, Keaton brought his son to a Los Angeles Lakers game, and Duke, who was nine years old at the time, was reportedly too busy taking photos of the game and even took a close-up photo of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
In 2007, Keaton also opened up about raising children in Hollywood; especially since his children prefer to stay away from the limelight and have expressed no interest in becoming an actor like him.
“They have no interest in what I do, which I think is very healthy,” he told People at the time. ‘We live a relatively normal, so normal life in a way.’
Their children only make public appearances on rare occasions, as they did to support their mother at the Hand and Footprint Ceremony held at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theater in August 2022.
When asked how it felt to be with them at such an event, he simply replied: ‘Everything. I love them.’
