Cameron Diaz may be "semi-retired" from acting, but she's thrilled about where her life is right now. In a new essay for InStyle, Diaz — who has not appeared on screen since 2014's remake of the musical Annie — said she's very content with having more time to herself since putting performance behind her.
"The way I look at it is that I’ve given more than half of my life to the public. I feel it’s OK for me to take time for myself now to reorganize and choose how I want to come [back] into the world. If I decide to. I don’t miss performing," Diaz wrote. "[W]hatever I do, it has to be something I’m passionate about — something that just feels effortless."
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This comes months after Diaz's The Sweetest Thing co-star Selma Blair told Metro that she would love to do a sequel to the comedy, but that Diaz "retired" from acting. Though Blair walked back the comments on Twitter, Diaz later told Entertainment Weekly that she is, indeed, "semi-retired."
The time Diaz spends not acting, she wrote in InStyle, is instead spent "build[ing] better, stronger friendships with the people who are in it with me" which includes her husband, Benji Madden. Diaz gushed over Madden in the piece and shared just how happy she is in her marriage to the Good Charlotte guitarist.
"Getting married to [Benji] was the best thing that ever happened to me. My husband’s the best. He’s the greatest human being, and he’s my great partner. Marriage is certainly hard, and it’s a lot of work. You need somebody who’s willing to do the work with you, because there’s no 60-40 in marriage. It’s 50-50, period. All the time," Diaz wrote of her partner. "I don’t know if I was ready [when I got married], but I knew Benji was special. He’s just a good man. There’s no bullshit. It’s really refreshing. I’m really grateful for him."
Diaz and Madden married in 2015, after getting engaged the year before following seven months of dating. The couple is notoriously private, however, Madden did share a sweet birthday message for Diaz's birthday in August. His message echoes the appreciative way Diaz claims to live her life in the InStyle essay.
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"The way you live your life everyday, and your compassion for the world shines thru in your eyes and you inspire me to want to be the best man I can be in this lifetime," Madden wrote. "You’re the realest. I’m so grateful to be yours."
Diaz's point about using her time to strengthen her friendships likely worked in her favor, as it's from her friendship with Nicole Richie that she met Madden in the first place.
In 2016, Diaz revealed on Andy Cohen's radio show Radio Andy that she and Madden met when she hosted a dinner party with Richie and Richie's husband, Joel Madden, who is Madden's identical twin. Joel asked if he could invite his brother whom Diaz had not met to the event, and the rest is history.
"You realize like, 'Oh this is like the real thing is. This is what real love is. This is what real commitment and devotion is. This is the person you build your life with,'" Diaz told Cohen of getting to know Madden.
Whether Diaz ever does that The Sweetest Thing sequel or not, she believes she's living her sweetest life.