A perfect plan! Diane Kruger loves being a parent with Norman Reedus — but she was prepared to be mom whether she met her fiancé or not.
“You know, I don’t know. Maybe it is what people say about women and that time clock, just all of a sudden kicks in. I mean, the truth is I would’ve had a kid with or without a man attached,” Kruger, 46, said during the Wednesday, February 22, episode of Dear Media’s “Divorced Not Dead” podcast. “I remember starting to feel like [it] in my mid-30s. Like, ‘What am I doing all this for? Why am I running so hard, trying to make money and trying to live this life? What’s it all worth it?’”
The Inglorious Basterds star, who was in a decade-long relationship with Joshua Jackson before meeting Reedus, 54, in 2017, hinted that she and the Dawson’s Creek alum, 44, tried to have a child together before calling it quits in 2016.
“I was in a very serious relationship at the time. We tried very hard to have a child, which didn’t work out,” she shared. “And then, I was single, and I thought, ‘Oh, you know what? Maybe it’s just easier to do it on your own anyways.’”
She added, “You don’t have to ask anyone for permission on schooling or where you’re gonna live. Let’s do it on your own.”
The Germany native revealed that she began looking into the different ways of becoming a single mother before she and The Walking Dead alum began dating. However, less than a year into their romance — when Kruger was 42 years old — the couple welcomed daughter Nova Tennessee. (Jackson, for his part, married Jodie Turner-Smith in 2019. The pair share 3-year-old daughter Janie.)
Kruger realized that finding her forever love with the Florida native allowed fate to take action. “When we realized we were gonna have a baby, and naturally, it just became this. I mean, Nova truly happened when I was least expecting it and most needed it in my life,” she gushed. “She was the absolute best thing that’s ever happened to me, to us, to my life.”
While the duo have kept their little one out of spotlight since Kruger gave birth in 2018, the couple — who met on the set of their film Sky in 2015 – has become more public with their romance over the years.
The National Treasure actress exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2019 that it’s been amazing to watch her partner bond with their baby girl. “He just looks at her with unconditional love,” she said, joking, “I wish he looked at me like that! … He’s just very great with her.”
In May 2021, Krueger reflected on her whirlwind romance with Reedus, sharing that he’s enriched her life since the pair welcomed their daughter into the world.
“The moment we heard her heartbeat for the very first time and nothing was ever the same again. What a joy to watch you grow my little girl,” the Troy star wrote via Instagram on Mother’s Day. “I will always love you @bigbaldhead for giving me our little angel and making life just so much better.”