Diane Keaton often discussed her decision to never marry despite dating some of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors in the 1970s.
“Today I was thinking about this. I’m 73 and I think I’m the only one in my generation, and maybe before, who has been a single woman all her life,” she told People in 2019.
The actress — who died at age 79 on October 11 — had multiple high profile relationships with her Hollywood costars early in her career. Keaton was a muse for actor-director Woody Allen during their few years together as a couple, in addition to dating her Godfather and Reds costars Al Pacino and Warren Beatty, respectively.
Keaton became a mother relatively late in life when she adopted two children, daughter Dexter and son Duke, in her 50s but never felt the need to tie the knot.
Diane Keaton famously never married during her acclaimed Hollywood career, though she has been linked to a number of famous faces. Keaton, who died in October 2025 at the age of 79, had long been candid about her decision to not walk down the aisle. “It goes back to my mother, because, for me, most […]
Keep scrolling for a look back at Keaton’s comments on why she never married.
The Right Thing
Keaton offered a blunt response in a 1996 ABC News interview when asked why she “never got married.”
“I think I never got married because I didn’t want to get married,” Keaton replied. “I didn’t choose to get married and the people that I was with, it was best that we were not married. I did the right thing.”
An Oddball
Speaking to People in 2019, Keaton suggested marriage may never have worked for her because she considered herself to be an outsider.
“I think that I’m strange,” she quipped. “I don’t know anything, and I haven’t learned. Getting older hasn’t made me wiser.”
Keaton argued that there was “something missing in me” and that a husband would need someone who “nurtured” them, which she was not capable of.
Diane Keaton in November 2019. Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix
“I’m an odd ball,” she confessed. “I remember one day in high school, this guy came up to me and said, ‘One day you’re going to make a good wife.’ And I thought, ‘I don’t want to be a wife. No.’”
‘Seduced By Talent’
The First Wives Club actress pushed back against the disparaging theory that she may have been “sad” about never marrying.
“[I’m not sad] because I think that I needed more of a maternal aspect,” she told People. “I don’t think it would have been a good idea for me to have married, and I’m really glad I didn’t, and I’m sure they’re happy about it, too.”
She added, “When I was young, I was looking to be loved by these extraordinary people. I think I should not have been so seduced by talent. When you’re both doing the same job, it’s not so great. I should have found just a nice human being, kind of a family guy.”
Conflicted Feelings
Speaking to YouTuber Kjersti Flaa in 2019, Keaton examined whether she was “really being honest” when she said she never wanted to “be someone’s wife.”
“I did say that and sometimes I think that’s not really right,” she admitted. “I think, in abstract, it might have been a really good idea to be married because I think it really is an important, wonderful institution for people to get together and stay together and live together. I don’t think I had it in me, though.”
Celebrities are mourning the loss of Diane Keaton, who died at age 79. People broke the news of her death on Saturday, October 11, confirming that The Godfather star died in California. Further details have yet to be released as her family asks for privacy during this difficult time. Bette Midler was one of the […]
Keaton suggested it would have been “taxing” to have “had the role [her] mother had” as a housewife.
“I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to have my mother’s role,” she insisted. “I saw that she had a lot of ambition that she couldn’t realize because of four kids and a husband in the ‘50s.”
‘A Different Sort of Love’
Keaton stressed in that 2019 interview that, “since marriage never really happened,” she developed “a different sort of love” for other people in her life.
“I really love the family that I have … those people are really, really important to me and my friends,” she added.
Ideal Husband
While Keaton often gave thoughtful responses when discussing marriage, she once light-heartedly pondered whether one Hollywood hunk might change her mind.
“Who’s gonna [marry me]?” she joked on The Ellen Degeneres Show in 2015, before replying: “Wait, oh. Channing Tatum?”
After host Ellen Degeneres broke the bad news that Tatum was married at the time to Jenna Dewan, Keaton had a tongue-in-cheek complaint: “Channing Tatum is actually married to someone else… not me?”