Ava DuVernay Says She Hasn’t Had Kids Or Gotten Married ‘By Choice’

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Ava DeVernay recently opened up as the star of InStyle Magazine‘s latest cover about purposefully not having kids and getting married.

DuVernay, who formerly worked as a publicist, began prioritizing her now awarding-winning filmmaking career in her 30s. The multi-hyphenate shared that she’s been able to focus on the passion she has for her career.

“There’s that line people say, ‘No new friends.’ But there can be,” the filmmaker said. “I can’t mature in my work if I don’t open my life a bit more. I didn’t have kids by choice, and I’m not married by choice. I was able to embrace my career later in life, in my 30s. So I’m going to do what feels good to me, and I’m going to have fun.”

Speaking about her life in the context of the pandemic and the last couple of years, DuVernay added:

“I feel like I’ve made it through something. We are still in the pandemic, and it’s a tough time. I’m clear about the things that are important to me now and prioritizing things. I’m someone who was a real workaholic and I always resented being called a workaholic because that makes it sound like an addiction of some kind. My work is my heartbeat, and I enjoy doing it, so I always resented it being called something negative.”

“When you put a sense of labor on top of something you really love, you need to be able to divide the love of it and the labor of it,” she explained. “I was able to focus so that I’m doing less of what I don’t like and more of what I do like. That’s a fortunate and privileged position, but I’m in it. I’m treating myself better, from a health perspective.”

Most known for her work on Selma, A Wrinkle in Time, When They See Us and more, DuVernay currently has a new docuseries set to air on HBO called One Perfect Shot which is dedicated to highlighting the “art of directing.” Not to mention, superhero fans continue to tune in as the award-winning filmmaker’s DC Comics TV show Naomi air its first season on The CW.

In her InStyle feature, DuVernay also discussed topics including her earliest beauty inspirations, her “conservative” fashion sense, coming into her own and her hair journey. See photos from the filmmaker’s latest shoot below.