Cameron Diaz: 'I was never drawn to being a mother'

LOS ANGELES, July 2 (UPI) -- Cameron Diaz said in an interview that she chose not to have children because she decided she was not willing to take that on as a responsibility.

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

Diaz, 41, said that while she does not have any regrets regarding her decision not to be a mother, the choice was not an easy one. She did note that though she does not have kids, she can have motherly instincts.

"I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother," she said.

In previous interviews, she has said she sometimes feels like a mother, since many of her friends have children and she spends a lot of time around them.

Diaz is focusing on her career, which includes her latest movie Sex Tape with Jason Segel that hits theaters July 18.

Diaz's full interview will appear in the August issue of Esquire, which will appear on newsstands July 8.