Actress Diane Kruger said motherhood was not always on the cards but the arrival of her daughter Nova has changed her life “in the best possible way”.
The 46-year-old star, best known for playing Helen in 2004 war film Troy, welcomed her first child in late 2018 with The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus.
The actress and former fashion model began dating Reedus in 2016 shortly after splitting with her partner of 10 years, Dawson’s Creek actor Joshua Jackson.
“I didn’t want children for a long time. I really liked my life the way it was,” she told Tatler magazine.
“In my late thirties, I was starting to think about it but I wasn’t in a place in my relationship at the time, or whatever, where that was going to be a possibility, and so I had kind of given up hope and I thought it was just too late.
“The arrival of Nova has changed my life, our lives, in the best possible way. It’s just amazing that you thought you were one thing but you’re meant to do something completely different.”
Kruger said she thought life gave you things when you least expect them “but most need them”, and spoke of her shifting approach towards her daughter’s privacy.
She said: “What you’re comfortable with changes with time. When she was first born, you really try to shield her from all public gaze. I felt very strongly about that, which I didn’t know I would.
“But as she grew older, it didn’t … We have never shown her face, all of our friends obviously know what her name is and it just tied in with the book.
“It seems natural to tell her and the world how special she is to us, and how much we put into the meaning of her name.”
Kruger has previously starred in a string of films including playing Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino’s war film Inglourious Basterds in 2009 and The 355 alongside Jessica Chastain and Penelope Cruz.
Her latest project is a mini-series about actress Marlene Dietrich, directed by Fatih Akin, who Kruger worked with in 2017 German language film In The Fade for which she was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
She said: “He has a real knack for writing women. He’s sensitive to the idea of (Dietrich) being an immigrant to America.
“We’re not going to start filming until the end of next year, so we have a lot of time to figure it out.”
The January issue of Tatler is available on newsstands and via digital download on December 1.