Dame Helen Mirren says although she once tried to talk herself into having children, she doesn’t regret her decision not to.
The 66-year-old actress, who has been married to director Taylor Hackford for 25 years, says she never felt maternal urges despite her efforts, The News Review reported.
“It’s not that I don’t love children, they are funny and I just love them, but I never wanted to have them,” she said. “I really tried to want it at one point. I thought maybe I should. But I never convinced myself.”
The Debt star added that her decision was beneficial to the world, as she believes it is overpopulated.
“I think some men and women just don’t have a deep urge to procreate,” she said. “I think still it is very fine not to want children. There are far too many people in the world. It’s my contribution to ecology.”
Mirren also admits to have a “sense of adventure” and says this contributed to her not wanting children as she hates being tied down to one place for too long.
“I still have a gypsy sense of adventure. I don’t think I have slept in the same bed for more than three or four months my whole life,” she said.
“I am always planting vegetables that I never get to eat and flowers that I never get to see flower. I have always moved around the world.”