Self-love central! Charlize Theron has been holding down her single status in the spotlight — and doesn’t plan on changing it anytime soon.
“It is strange for people to, kind of, wrap their heads around it,” the Monster actress, 45, explained of her love life on Thursday, September 17, during an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I’ve been on a few dates but I haven’t dated anybody for over five years.”
The South Africa native split from singer Stephan Jenkins in October 2001 after three years of dating and later moved on with Irish actor Stuart Townsend. The exes, who met on the set of 2002’s Trapped, called it quits in January 2010. Three years later, Theron coupled up with Sean Penn. Despite rumors that the pair might have been engaged, they went their separate ways in June 2015.
“I mean, I’m open when friends of mine are like, ‘You should go on a date’ [or] ‘You should meet this guy,’” Theron said on Wednesday. “But I feel like I’m in a place in my life where you’ve gotta come with a lot of game. … The kind of game that’s like, my life is really good so you better be able to bring that and maybe better. Because I just won’t accept anything less.”
Though she hasn’t settled down in the traditional sense, Theron expanded her family in her own way by adopting two children: Jackson in March 2012 and August in July 2015. Over the years, her “adopted family” has become her central focus.
“I don’t long for that much,” the Bombshell star told host Drew Barrymore. “I can honestly say this on my life: I don’t feel lonely. Once I had my children, it’s not that it replaces something or makes you less interested in [romance] … It’s a lot of work to be a parent and part of that is at the end of the day, I get in bed and I go, ‘Oh, my God, I wouldn’t want this day to be anything different.’”
Barrymore, 45, revealed that she also has been going through a romantic dry spell since splitting from husband Will Kopelman in 2016. “I always say I would want someone to be an addition [to] the equation and not a subtraction,” the 50 First Dates actress said.
Earlier this year, Theron explained that she wanted to set a positive example for her children by setting her own path.
“We are raising a generation of young girls who realize that there is absolutely no shame in that game to be in relationship with yourself — to not fall into what society kind of predicts for us as what is socially acceptable: If you are not in a relationship, somehow you’re a failure,” she said on a July episode of the “InCharge with DVF” podcast. “Those are all constructs that we need to change.”
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