After two decades as a top actress in Hollywood, Cameron chose to step back from the spotlight after “Annie” in 2014. Around the same time, she married Benji Madden, embracing a new chapter in her life that prioritized personal fulfillment over global fame.
On an episode of the “Anna Faris Is Unqualified” podcast, the “Charlie’s Angels” actress shared how she instantly connected with the Good Charlotte guitarist, after his brother and bandmate, Joel Madden, and Joel Madden’s wife, Nicole Richie, helped introduce them.
“I met (my husband) through my now sister-in-law and brother-in-law. I met them first and then they didn’t set us up but we were in the same room because of them, and then we found each other,” Diaz recalled.
“I was like, ‘How come I didn’t see him before?’” Diaz added.
“Which is funny,” interjected Diaz’s business partner Katherine Power, “because you saw his twin brother.”
Diaz then went on to explain that although the Madden brothers are twins, they’re their own men.
“They’re not the same, they’re so different,” she said. “Even though they’re twins, they’re very, very different, obviously.”
Recalling that first meeting with Benji Madden, Diaz continued, “I saw him walking towards me and I was like, ‘Huh, he’s hot. I haven’t seen him before.’
“But then when I saw him, like who he was — that’s what made me really be like, ‘Oh, you, you, you’re special. You’re the guy. You’re the hidden gem in my life,’” she gushed.
In 2017, Diaz explained why she chose to marry later in life, at the age of 41, during Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop health and wellness conference.
“I think it’s a matter of – I just hadn’t met my husband, you know? I had boyfriends before. And there’s a really, really distinct difference between husbands and boyfriends. And I have a husband who is … just my partner in life and in everything,” she said at the time. “Talk about two very different people, we are so different from one another but we share the same values … we’re totally two peas in a pod. We’re both just weird enough for each other.”