Jeremy Renner confirms he married Sonni Pacheco

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Jeremy Renner and Sonni Pacheco are married.

The 43-year-old actor confirmed the news in an interview with Capitol File. Renner told the magazine he and his wife kept the wedding secret in order to protect their family from the inevitable intrusion by the press.

"I have tried to protect my family's privacy, my wife's privacy," the actor related. "I don't need her to get hammered with my life. Privacy issues are important because I want her to go about her day without being bothered."

"Paps follow me, that's fine. But it's annoying being followed when I'm with my family," he continued. "It's not just me -- everyone [in Hollywood] has to deal with that. I've been talked about a whole lot, because the less I put out there, the less people know, and it makes it interesting, I assume."

Renner and Pacheco were an on-and-off couple for several years, and welcomed their first child, daughter Ava Berlin, in March 2013. The actor said he is grateful he waited to have children until after he established a career, but considers himself a family man first now that Ava is here.

"It's the best thing I have ever done -- doing it later on in life," he declared. "Now I can really spend time with the family. The only thing I think about when I'm not with my baby is, 'How do I get to my baby?' I need to get to her, and I'm very miserable when I don't see her."

"I really love being a father," he shared. "I still work, probably even more. It used to be for myself so I'm not old and broke. All these things I still do, but I do it now for the future of my baby, and if it gets in the way of her well-being, then I stop."

Renner will next appear alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Sheen and Ray Liotta in Kill the Messenger. The film tells the story of real-life investigative journalist Gary Webb, and opens in theaters October 10.