Happy birthday, Cameron Diaz! The Hollywood star celebrates her 54th birthday on August 30. And we're positive she's celebrating with her doting family, which includes her husband Benji Madden and their three kids.
For Cameron, her 50s have been career and life-defining. In the past few years alone, not only has she returned to acting after taking an extended hiatus, but also embraced a more private approach to motherhood, particularly with her two youngest children.
In honor of her big day, we're looking at all Cameron has said about being a mom and her perspective on welcoming children later in life…
© Donato SardellaMeet Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden's three kids
But first, a primer! Cameron and Good Charlotte musician Benji, 47, tied the knot in January 2015 after less than a year of dating. Just a few years later, she announced her retirement from acting.
In December 2019, the couple welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Raddix Chloe Wildflower Madden, via surrogacy. In March 2024, the couple surprised the world by revealing they'd become parents once again, this time to a son named Cardinal Madden. And in May 2026, they shared they'd welcomed a second son named Nautas Madden.
© Getty ImagesWhy motherhood for Cameron was a "real choice"
While on Naomi Campbell's podcast No Filter in 2020, Cameron explained that her decision to become a mother for the first time at 47 was something she had to measure carefully. "Having a family when you're young…it's like anything when you're young: You do it," she explained.
"But when you're my age and you decide to do it, it's a real choice," the mom-of-three continued. "You really have to work hard for it."
© Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty ImageCameron's "second half" of life
Also on the podcast, the Bad Teacher star noted that while many will fulfill all of those milestones like marriage and parenthood in their youth, she's doing it all in her "second half," saying: "A lot of people do it the other way around… they get married [and] have a family in their youth. I'm kind of doing it in the second half of my life."
She also quipped: "The only pressure for me now is I have to live to be, like, 107, you know? No pressure!"
© Getty ImagesCameron on being "vital" for her kids in her 50s
In 2022, the actress spoke with Michelle Visage for a BBC Radio 2 interview, saying of being a mom in her 50s: "The women who have children my age are like, literally 20 years younger and that's an interesting place to be because I'm not that age. And that's totally okay. But I want to feel vital like that for my child."
© Sygma via Getty ImagesWhy Cameron retired from acting
The star stepped away from the screen for just about a decade, before finally returning in early 2025 with Netflix's Back in Action. While she's tied to multiple projects now, Cameron has defended her life away from the public eye, citing it as necessary not only for her motherhood journey, but also to focus on her own sense of self.
Speaking at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in 2024, per Variety, she explained: "For me, it was just something I had to do. It felt like something I had to do to reclaim my own life. And I just really didn't care about anything else."
"Nobody's opinion, nobody's success, no one's offer, no one's anything could change my mind about my decision of taking care of myself and building the life that I really wanted to have. It really comes to: What are you passionate about? For me, it was to build my family."
