Cameron Diaz: Why I Never Had Children

— -- In the latest issue of Esquire Magazine, Cameron Diaz opens up about her decision not to have kids.

“It’s so much more work to have children," she told the magazine. "To have lives besides your own that you are responsible for -- I didn’t take that on. That did make things easier for me. A baby -- that’s all day, every day for eighteen years.”

Still, the "Sex Tape" actress, 41, said it was a tough choice to make.

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"I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother," she added. "I have it much easier than any of them. That’s just what it is. Doesn’t mean life isn’t sometimes hard. I’m just what I am. I work on what I am. Right now, I think, things are good for me. I’ve done a lot. And I don’t care anymore.”

Diaz also said, “I like being forty-one. I love it," she said. "So much sh-- just falls away. Fear, mostly. It’s the best age. That’s when a woman knows how to work things, or she doesn’t care about that anymore. You just stop being afraid. You don’t worry about what men think. You just don’t worry that time registers anything awful.”

Finally, she revealed what it was like to be naked in her latest film.

“It’s a first for me. But Jason [Segel] gets naked, too," she said. "It’s just a part of the role. So I did it. I mean you see everything."

Esquire's August issue hits newsstands July 8.