For some people having kids is the most wonderful thing, the ultimate blessing, but not everyone wants that. Decision to spend life without children is not an easy one, but parenthood just isn’t for everybody. Here are some stars who are perfectly happy leading lives without kids.

Helen Mirren

 

 

 

 

 

Helen married American director Taylor Hackford in 1997 at the age of 52. She says that she has never had maternal instinct whatsoever, but that she did doubt herself in her younger years. “I never wanted to have them, but I really tried to want them at one point. I was never able to convince myself and I just don’t have the urge to procreate. It is all fine by me and I never really cared about what others think. After all, there are far too many people in this world and this is my small contribution to ecology,” the actress says. Mirren says that even though she always knew it was not for her, she does love children.

Zooey Deschanel

 

 

 

 

 

Multi-talented actress Zooey Deschanel claims that she’s never really wanted to become a mom. The 34-year-old brunette told Marie Claire, “Having kids has never been my focus. My sister Emily was always very motherly, babysitting and stuff. I like kids, and I like being around kids – but it was never an ambition, something, like, I need…I like working. That’s what I like doing. I like to work.”

Cameron Diaz

 

 

 

 

 

In the August issue of Esquire magazine, Cameron Diaz reveals why she likes her life without children. “To have lives besides your own that you are responsible for – I didn’t take that on. A baby – that’s all day, every day for 18 years. Not having a baby might really make things easier, but that doesn’t make it an easy decision. I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother,” Cameron explained.

Eva Mendes

 

 

 

 

 

The gorgeous actress revealed quite some time ago that she feels the institution of marriage is very archaic, and in 2012 she said, “I have to be honest, I don’t feel the urge yet. Maybe I’ll do it when I’m 41 or something, that’s happened to a lot of people I know who decided not to. I don’t feel the ticking clock.” Last year, Eva told Entertainment Wise, “I don’t wanna have kids…I love the little suckers; they’re so cute. But I love sleep so much, and I worry about everything.”

Jon Hamm

 

 

 

 

 

Hamm is willing to admit his shortcomings in the child-rearing department. “I’d be a terrible father!” the Mad Men star told Us Weekly. “I see my friends who have children and I’m like, ‘Dude, how are you even upright, much less here at work at 6 a.m.?’”

Oprah Winfrey

 

 

 

 

 

To many people former talk show host Oprah Winfrey would be the perfect mother, but she decided long ago that she doesn’t want to be anyone’s mom. She told The Hollywood Reporter, “If I had kids, my kids would hate me. They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something (in my life) would have had to suffer and it would’ve probably been them.”

Portia De Rossi

 

 

 

 

 

In 2013, Portia De Rossi told Out Magazine in an interview that she and Ellen DeGeneres were not planning to have children. She said, “The pressure is definitely there once you are in your mid-30s, but I asked myself whether I want children so I don’t miss out on something that other people seem to love or is it that I really want this with my whole heart? I did not feel my response was ‘yes’ to the latter.”

Ricky Gervais

 

 

 

 

 

Funnyman Ricky Gervais revealed when he wrote his will recently that he’d left his entire fortune to girlfriend Jane Fallon, his partner for the last 30 years, because the couple decided a long time ago not to have kids. He told The Sun newspaper: “You worry about dependents and wills and things and that everything goes to my girlfriend. I’ve worked out who will get it. We chose not to have kids. I still don’t think about that. It doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t know if that is a legacy, really. It’s biological. I don’t think of things like that.”

Renee Zellweger

 

 

 

 

 

In 2011, the 45-year-old told David Letterman, “My brother has two children now, so I’ve been playing Aunt Renee. They’re two and four. It’s chaos. Moms out there, kudos to you. The cool thing about being an aunt is like, I can leave. No offense to my big brother Drew, but that is slavery. I dare you to take a shower. You can’t do anything unless they let you. It’s a dictatorship. They’re little dictators in their crib.”

Christina Hendricks

 

 

 

 

 

In Health magazine’s recent May issue, Christina opened up about her feelings on children, revealing, “We’ve decided that we are not really interested in having children,” she said in the interview with Health. “It seems like it’s expected that you’d want to have kids. It’s just very normal for people to say, ‘Well, when you guys have kids…’ And then when I say, ‘Actually I don’t think we’re going to do that,’ people will say, ‘Oh, you say that now…’”, she added, “It doesn’t bother me, though. And, you know, there’s a small chance I could change my mind.”