Charlize Theron got interested in adoption when she was 8 years old
Charlize Theron knew at a young age that she wanted to grow her family through adoption.
“My mom has a letter that I wrote to her when I was 8 years old. In the letter I ask her if we could, for Christmas, go to an orphanage and adopt a brother or sister for me,” Theron revealed on Diana von Furstenberg’s “InCharge With DVF” podcast.
When the actress, 44, became a parent to her daughter, Jackson, now 8, in 2012, her mother, Gerda Maritz, remembered the note.
“She’s like, ‘You never asked me to have another baby. You never asked me to have a little brother or sister for you. You just immediately went to adoption,’” Theron recalled.
The South Africa native, who grew up longing for a sibling, adopted a little girl named August in 2015. She is raising Jackson and August, 5, with Maritz.
“My little one said something like, ‘You need a boyfriend.’ And I said, ‘Actually, I don’t,’” Theron told von Furstenberg. “And she’s like, ‘But you know what, just like, you need a boyfriend, you need like a relationship.’ And I was like, ‘I am in a relationship. I’m in a relationship with myself right now.’
Theron described how August just stared back at her confused.
“She just had this look in her eye like she had never really contemplated that that was even a possibility… her mind was blown,” Theron said.
Theron added that there’s a stigma in society that if a woman is single it’s because she’s difficult.
“I hope that we’re raising a generation of young girls who realize that there is absolutely no shame in that game to be in a relationship with yourself,” Theron explained.
During an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” in June, Theron revealed she's “never been lonely” and called Jackson and August “the great loves” of her life.
