She may have it all figured out now, but life wasn’t always that easy for Julianne Moore.
After more than three decades in the Hollywood eye, it’s clear that Julianne Moore has learned a thing or two about balancing the demands of a grueling job and the dream of a family.
The actress, who recently took home both a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for her role in Still Alice, has just opened up about how the break down of her first marriage left her reeling well into her early 30s.
“I was lonely,” she told the Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview. “I don’t think I felt happy. I didn’t have the kind of personal life I wanted.”
Julianne married John Gould Rubin at the age of 25, after the pair had been together for just two years. But, in a move that left the star shattered, the pair divorced nine years later in 1995.
Unable to come to terms with what she was feeling at that time, Julianne has said that turning to therapy was definitely the right answer.
"One of the things she said was that everybody always knows the answer," Julianne recalled in the interview. "She said, 'We all know the answer.' And I think we all do, don't we?"
Now, at age 54, Julianne has been happily married to director Bart Freundlich for 19 years. The pair met less than one year after her split from John at a time when the Still Alice star says she realised that her family life was as important as her professional life.
"One thing I used to tell my women friends was, 'There's an expectation that your personal life is going to happen to you, but you're going to have to make your career happen. And that's not true: You have to make your personal life happen as much as your career.'"
And, as much as the red-headed beauty loved acting, she says what she wanted more than anything was a family. "It was just a job, and I really wanted a family," she told reporter Stephen Galloway.
"I'd spent my 20s working hard and trying to get to wherever there was, which wasn't really anywhere."
But Julianne's life today is proof that her drive and focus have paid off. She's living in New York City with Bart and their two kids, Caleb, 17, and Liv, 12, and her career is thriving more than ever before.
Alongside the likes of Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, Julianne is certainly showing the world that a woman's working life certainly doesn't end at 40. And why should it.
"The idea that you're the centre of your own narrative and that you can create your life is a great idea," she said in reference to her favourite book, Little Women.
"I totally believe it. I've been really lucky, but I feel I've completely created my own life."
Flick through to see some more pictures of Julianne Moore through the decades...
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