Isabella Rossellini found "serenity" and "freedom" being single for 25 years.
The 72-year-old actress has been married twice - to director Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Wiedemann - and she previously dated moviemaker David Lynch and was engaged to actor Gary Oldman, but she has been single for more than two decades and puts it down to being unable to find a partner while she was raising her two children.
She told the Guardian newspaper: "I think that’s just how life panned out. I had children and it was difficult to have a relationship with a man who was not the father.
"And I started thinking, OK, I’ll take care of the children and then when they’re grown up, I’ll be available for a partner."
Isabella - who is mum to daughter Elettra with Wiedemann and adopted son Roberto - went on to admit she found happiness in single life.
She explained: "I found, I have to say, the great serenity of being single. And if I hadn’t, I don’t think I would have been able to do all that I’ve done. I have freedom of movement.
"Maybe if I’d found somebody and fallen in love. But I didn’t look for a partner just to not be alone, because I wasn’t alone. When you’re with somebody, you become very vulnerable to the ups and downs of the other person. So I was able to keep an evenness and a concentration that allowed me to study, to get a master’s degree in my 50s.
"I could just zero in on what I had wanted to do when I was 14."
Isabella gained a master's degree in animal behaviour in 2019 during a break from acting and she now runs a farm in Long Island, New York to indulge her passion for nature.
She told Vogue magazine: "I do run a 30-acre farm, so in many ways I’ve managed to fuse all these passions ...
"When I’m there we’re doing everything from gardening to cooking lessons to knitting. I manage the bees since everybody’s afraid of how small and nasty they are - I’m covered up like an Ebola doctor, so it feels like armoor.
"But it’s a lot of work and constant problems. I still have a small apartment in New York that I visit just to take a breather sometimes."
