Couples
Diane Keaton Has Had Many Great Loves Despite Having Never Been Married
Diane Keaton laughs at the notion of being an “old maid.” “That concept is such nonsense — the idea that if you never marry you’re destroyed,” says Diane.
She has a point. Although she never wed, Diane, 73, has lived an enviable life. The Oscar-winning actress has starred in 58 films, published two books, raised two children and enjoyed longterm relationships with several of Hollywood’s most fascinating men. She’s still making movies — her latest, Poms, opened last month — and in her free time she flips houses and entertains nearly 1 million followers on Instagram. “I know what I am by now,” she says. “So if something appeals to me, I’m definitely going to go for it.”
That’s always been her way. Born Diane Hall — she took her mother’s maiden name when she began acting — Diane felt driven to succeed. “I had a lot of failures,” she insists. “If I couldn’t get the lead, then I’d try the chorus and if I couldn’t get into the chorus, I’d try something else.”
In the 1970s, Diane finally joined the A-list with her roles in the Godfather saga (where she fell in love with Al Pacino) and comedies like Annie Hall. Written for her by her former lover Woody Allen, the film earned Diane an Oscar in 1978. Four years later, she received her second Oscar nod for Reds, written and directed by her then-love Warren Beatty. “I had some insane idea that I had to be ‘in love,'” says the actress. “Now I see what it really takes: real consideration that you’re a good team together.”
None of those relationships ended at the altar and Diane admits that makes her atypical. “I don’t think about marriage a lot but I’m aware of the fact that I’m unusual in that regard,” she says. “No one ever asked me [to marry them]. I think they got to know me and realized, ‘Oh, jeez.'”
It’s likely that Diane’s tendency to say exactly what’s on her mind put some men off. “I hog conversations, I laugh too hard,” she admits, but Diane also notes that she might have had more success by dating outside of Hollywood. “When you’re both doing the same job, it’s not so great. I should have found a nice human being, kind of a family guy.”
Still, she doesn’t like to waste time on regrets. “Maybe I did miss out on something,” Diane says. “But then, nobody can have everything, right?”
Diane has tried. Along with her career and family, she’s embraced new things like Instagram, where she’s become a fashion trendsetter. “To me, when people talk about retirement, it just seems like, ‘What? Don’t do that.’ You can get lost without the patterns of your life,” she says. “It’s about opening up new patterns. It’s up to you to make something of it yourself.”
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