Julia Roberts admits she constantly has to convince herself to accept acting roles because she hates being away from her three children so much.
The 'Pretty Woman' star - who is married to cameraman Daniel Moder - admits she found it tough when she tried to leave her kids, twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, to go back to work after they were born in 2004.
Her first attempts at juggling motherhood and work were not that successful.
Julia told The Hollywood Reporter: "The first time I worked after I had Finn and Hazel was a play ['Three Days of Rain on Broadway'] for four months. And they were a year-and-a-half old, and there was a little place in the theatre for them to play, and Paul Rudd's son was just younger than they were.
"It seemed perfect, 'I'll be at work while they're sleeping, and nothing about our life will be any different.' And then cut to me standing at an elevator waiting to go to work, literally pulling my own hair out. I went a little bit cuckoo."
Julia, 46, admits she felt she had earned the right to take some time off with her kids because she had been working non-stop for so long.
The Oscar winner explained: "I had been working for 18 years when I had Hazel and Finn almost nine years ago. So I felt like I earned that time in my house and in my kitchen and in bed all day with these two little people.
"I felt that was my present to myself. I was fortunate to work a lot, and I worked hard, and I was very devoted to that, and then I earned this jewel box of a life that I felt completely entitled to.
And things haven't gotten easier as her twins have got older and Julia - who also has a son Henry, who was born in 2007 - almost turned down a role in her most recent film 'August: Osage County' because she felt "heartsick" at the idea of leaving her three children.
She said: "'August: Osage County' was the first time I left my family to go work. And I almost didn't do it because I just felt so heartsick at the idea. I'd never been away from my children."
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