Warren Beatty’s days as one of Hollywood’s most infamous playboys are long behind him, but that doesn’t mean he’s lost touch with his old flames.
“The people with whom I had serious involvements I’m still on very good terms with, always have been,” the Rules Don’t Apply director, 79, recently told GQ.
Looking back on those days, Beatty is happy he waited to settle down. “Had I gone ahead earlier and gone through 143 divorces, I would have felt very guilty. I think I would have handled it badly,” he explained.
He also realizes that if he had taken a different path, he might not have the family he does today. “More importantly, it wouldn’t have been these kids or this wife … I’m so much more interested in my wife and kids than anything else,” he added. Beatty married Annette Bening in 1992, and they have four kids: Stephen, 24, Isabel, 19, Benjamin, 22, and Ella, 16.
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“I don’t want to be mushy about it, but having four kids is definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me, and each kid is to me more fascinating than any five movies. You know, the DNA of it all kind of does get to me,” Beatty said of his legacy.
With his 80th birthday around the corner, Beatty admitted he has become more mindful about his health. “I’ve been around longer than other people. I actually knew Adlai Stevenson and Jack and Bobby Kennedy,” he explained.
“Now there are people missing. I’ll go to bed, I’ll be thinking of someone. I think, ‘I’ll give them a call.’ And then,” Beatty said, miming picking up a phone, “‘Oh, yeah. Of course.’ ” In other words, they’re already gone.