Diane Kruger, 46, had 'given up hope' of having kids before daughter Nova, 4: 'I thought it was just too late'

Diane Kruger is opening up about her journey to motherhood.

In a cover story for Tatler's January issue, the German-born actress, 46, shared how her perspective on having kids changed over the course of her personal and professional life.

"I didn't want children for a long time. I really liked my life the way it was," she said of her life before having her daughter, Nova, 4, whom she shares with her fiancé Norman Reedus.

"In my late thirties, I was starting to think about it but I wasn't in a place in my relationship at the time – or whatever – where that was going to be a possibility and so I had kind of given up hope and I thought it was just too late. And I was OK with that," Kruger explained. "The arrival of Nova has changed my life — our lives — in the best possible way. It's just amazing that you thought you were one thing but you're meant to do something completely different."

Kruger explained that as Nova gets older, she's changed her approach when it comes to her daughter's privacy.

"What you're comfortable with changes with time," she said, noting that she and Reedus have "never shown" Nova's face publicly. "When she was first born, you really try to shield her from all public gaze. I felt very strongly about that, which I didn't know I would."

Writing her children's book, A Name from the Sky, in which Kruger shares her own experience growing up as something of an "outsider," has gotten her to think deeper about her views on parenting. "[I want Nova] to feel like she has a place, everywhere," she said.

Kruger has opened up about her relationship with her daughter in the past.

"To be honest, I couldn't have imagined having a kid earlier," the actress told Yahoo Life in October. "I was kind of toying with the idea around the time I was like in my late 30s; I just didn't think it was going to be for me. And you know, Nova was a surprise. I mean, I would've liked to have a kid, but I thought I was too old, to be honest."

Kruger explained at the time that her children's book, which tells the story of the complex relationship she has with her own name, is a love letter to Nova.

"I want to enable her imagination as much as I can," Kruger said. "I want her to have wings. If she wants to have pink hair, she can have pink hair. If she wants to, you know, buy some costume because she's that person for this week, we can do that."

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