Charlize Theron says being a single mom was ‘one of the healthiest decisions’ she ever made

Charlize Theron, 49, has zero regrets about doing motherhood solo.

During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of “Call Her Daddy,” Theron spoke about her life as a single mother of two. She adopted her daughters Jackson and August in 2012 and 2015, respectively.

The “Mad Max: Fury Road” actor told podcast host Alex Cooper that her parents’ relationship was a “cautionary tale” that helped her realize she didn’t want to be in one. Theron was 15 when she witnessed her mother fatally shoot her alcoholic father in self-defense.

Theron said it was a “layered and complicated” decision driven by two factors: not wanting what her parents had and recognizing that she “did not have the capability of being healthy in a relationship.”

“Those two things I had to acknowledge when I decided to be a parent, and I think it’s probably one of the healthiest decisions I ever made,” she said.

However, she acknowledges that there’s still a stigma being placed on women who choose to be single.

“With women, it’s always like, something must be wrong with her. She can’t keep a man. And it’s never part of the discussion of like, ‘Wow, she’s really living her truth. She’s living in her happiness. This is actually a choice that she made,'” Theron said.

“I want to look at them, and just be like, ‘Do you know how fucking great it is to live exactly how I want to live?’ To experience motherhood exactly how I wanted to experience it,” she added.

Theron says some people might question whether her decision was fair to her children, but in the end, only they can speak to their own experience.

“I can only tell you that this is the best way that I know how to be a mother to them,” she said.

“I love every single day of it. I love that I don’t have to share them with somebody. I love that I don’t have to run every fucking thing by a guy,” she added.

Theron said she “broke the cycle” by knowing exactly what she didn’t want in a relationship and what she had to offer.

“And who I am at the time that I wanted to be a parent was not somebody who should be having kids with another person,” Theron said.

Theron isn’t the only celebrity who has spoken about being a single parent.

Lucy Liu told The Cut in 2023 that the decision to have a child in her late 40s via surrogacy — as a single woman — was largely unplanned. “I didn’t do a lot of research, I just pulled the trigger,” Liu said.

In a March interview with Parade, Connie Britton — who adopted her son from Ethiopia as a single woman at 45 — said she always wanted to be a mother.

“I knew that I hadn’t achieved the kind of partnership that I was looking for to have a spouse and a child together. And so I thought, ‘This is the time, I’m going to start the adoption process,'” Britton said.

A representative for Theron did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

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