Cameron Diaz opened up about her devotion to her family.
While speaking on a panel at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit this week, the actress discussed her decision to take some time away from her acting career.
Diaz, who is set to return to the big screen in 2025 in an upcoming film with Jamie Foxx, stepped away from Hollywood in 2014 to focus her time on her family.
"It felt like the right thing for me to reclaim my own life, and I just really didn't care about anything else," she explained during the conversation. "Nobody's opinion, nobody's success, no one's offer, no one's anything could change my mind about my decision of taking care of myself and building the life that I really wanted to have. I think it really comes to what are you passionate about, for me it was to build my family."
After her break from the spotlight, Diaz tied the knot with her husband Benji Madden in 2015, and the two later welcomed their daughter Raddix in 2019 and son Cardinal in 2024.
During her appearance at the summit, Diaz also shared that Madden was encouraging and supportive of her return to Hollywood.
"It was just the right time for my family. After COVID, we were in the house for a long time, which was amazing and the problem was we would probably stay there, we would still be there right now. People would be like, 'It's over' and I'd be like, 'No it's not, it's not over for me,' "she said. "So I had to push myself; my husband and I — my husband, who is the best — he was like, 'You've been supporting us and building the family' and supporting him in his businesses, he's like, 'It's time for us to support you and let Mommy ascend and do her thing.' He's like, 'Let me see you do it, girl.' I was like, 'Alright, here we go.'"
Cameron Diaz on why she retired from acting, who encouraged her to become a motherThe actress also confessed that she "couldn't say no" to Foxx for his offer to star in the new Netflix film, "Back in Action."
"He said, 'Come with me.' And I was like, 'OK, let's do it.' It's our third film together," she said.
Diaz and Foxx previously starred alongside each other in "Annie" and "Any Given Sunday."
"Back in Action" is slated to be released on January 17, 2025, according to Netflix.
