Diane Keaton regrets not settling down with a partner in life, admitting "the best possible scenario" would have been to give her adopted children a father figure.
The Annie Hall star has famously dated Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino, but never got married.
She adopted daughter Dexter in 1996 and son Duke in 2001, and in the same year (01) she announced she had given up pursuing romance.
But Keaton now admits she may have been hasty in her decision, conceding it would have been ideal for her children to have a father figure.
She tells Aarp magazine, "As a parent I provide all I can, but I think in the best possible scenario you need to have a man."
Asked what stopped her from marrying, she replied, "I think it was just my whole life. How I responded first to boys and then to men.
"It had nothing to do with reality. Relationships are hard. You're lucky if you find someone."