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Bo Derek, 69, on Fame and Why She Never Had Kids

In a new podcast interview with Bill Maher, the actor said she realized she was ‘not mother material’

Donna Freydkin,

AARP

Published July 07, 2026

bo derek posing in a cream colored satin top

Bo Derek in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on June 10, 2026. In a new podcast interview, the actor reflects on aging, health, beauty and the life she chose outside the Hollywood grind.

Franziska Krug/Marcel Remus via Getty Images

Key takeaways

Bo Derek said on the Club Random podcast that her overnight fame from 10 came so fast that she “always felt” she was catching up.
She told host Bill Maher she never had children after realizing she was “not mother material” and that her first husband, John Derek, did not want more children.
In a 2024 AARP interview, Derek said she had settled into retirement and was “having a great time.”

Bo Derek, 69, once assumed she would have children because that seemed like what people did.

The actor appeared on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast in an episode posted July 6, where the conversation moved from her breakout role in 1979’s 10 to beauty, aging, retirement, animals and why she never had children.

Maher, 70, asked whether Derek had children.

“Nope,” she said.

Asked whether she had wanted them, Derek said she once assumed she would become a parent because that was the expected path.

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“Everyone says you’re going to have kids. When I hit about 32, I thought, Uh-oh; I better start working on this and scheduling it.”

Derek was still married to her first husband, John Derek, who was nearly 30 years older than she was and had children from a previous marriage.

“I kept waiting for my life to slow down. It never slowed down,” she said. “He didn’t want kids. He’d had two kids from a previous marriage. He was older, so he’d done it.”

The more she considered it, the clearer the decision became, Derek said.

“When I thought I wanted it, then I really started sitting down to scheduling and I thought, I’m not mother material,” Derek said. “My husband certainly isn’t father material. He was the most judgmental oddball.”

Derek said she weighed the decision carefully, even comparing the thought she put into parenthood with the thought she puts into bringing a dog into her life.

“I think I spend more time when I decide to have a dog, a new dog, than most people do when they have a kid,” she said.

Derek became famous at 22 in 10, a role that made her one of the defining screen images of the late 1970s. In 1980, she earned her only Golden Globe nomination, for new star of the year. She went on to make more than 40 films and TV shows, then moved much of her public life toward animal welfare, horse protection and conservation.

Maher told Derek that America had fixated on her after 10, making her “that girl” for a while.

“It was just a whirlwind because I had no aspirations to be in films,” said Derek.

Derek said she had no agent, no manager and “no fantasies about being in the movies” when 10 changed her life.

Aging without kids

Bo Derek told Bill Maher she realized children were not part of the life she wanted. AARP has practical guidance for people aging without children, including how to choose someone to make medical decisions, plan for long-term care and think through housing and estate plans.

“So it came at me so fast and turned my life around,” she said. “I always felt I was kind of catching up.”

Now she is happily retired, she said to AARP.

“It took time to settle into retirement, even though I was hardly working,” Derek told AARP in 2024. “You still have that drive and that angst.”

Then, she said, something shifted: “It took a couple of years to think, Oh, I have worked hard, I am this old — and I’m really good at retirement. I am having a great time!”

Now married to actor John Corbett, 65 — best known for the Sex and the City series as well as the My Big Fat Greek Wedding movies — Derek told Maher she does not pine for a return to a movie set.

“No, I’m not missing anything,” she said. “I don’t miss it.”

The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Donna Freydkin has spent 10-plus years interviewing celebrities for major publications, and has written for a variety of outlets such as USA Today, Allure, Yahoo! and CNN covering topics such as films, family and favorite meals.