Anne Hathaway Opens Up About How Marriage Has Changed Her

The Oscar winner talks marriage and Hollywood inequality in a new interview

Photo: Terry Tsiolis

Anne Hathaway is opening up about how husband Adam Shulman has brought a new dimension to her life.

Appearing on the cover of Elle, the Oscar winner gets personal as she reflects on her husband — and their marriage of four years.

“He changed my ability to be in the world comfortably,” she says. “I think the accepted narrative now is that we, as women, don’t need anybody. But I need my husband. His unique and specific love has changed me.”

In the interview, the actress also opens up about spending the next four years as a U.N. Goodwill Ambassadorto advocate for paid parental leave in the U.S. And she says that having her son, Jonathan Rosebanks, was what made her want to get involved.

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“I can’t believe we don’t already have it,” Hathaway says about paid leave. “When [my son] Johnny was a week old and I was holding him and I was in the ninth level of ecstasy, I just all of a sudden thought, ‘Mommy guilt is invented nonsense.’ We’re encouraged to judge each other, but we should be turning our focus to the people and institutions who should be supporting us and currently aren’t.”

Terry Tsiolis

The actress recently shared the first photoof her nearly 1-year-old son last week after she spoke in front of the U.N. about parental leave on International Women’s Day. The United States offers 12 weeks of unpaid leave for mothers, a problem that took on new resonance for Hathaway when she gave birth to her son last year. “Somehow we and every American parent were expected to be back to normal in under three months without income,” she said in her speech.

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In her Elle interview, Hathaway also opens up about another issue she’s passionate about — gender inequality in Hollywood. The actress is starring in the all-female reboot Ocean’s 8, which made her realize how different she felt on set surrounded by women for the first time.

Terry Tsiolis

“Hollywood is not a place of equality,” Hathaway says. “I don’t say that with anger or judgment; it’s a statistical fact. And even though I’ve been in some female-centric films, I’ve never been in a film like this. It just kind of makes you aware of the ways you sort of unconsciously change yourself to fit certain scenarios.”

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“It’s not better or worse, or right or wrong,” she clarifies. “But there are certain things you understand about one another because of experiences you have in common … it’s probably easy for men to take that for granted. Just being on a set where I’m the one who possesses that ease is really something. It’s a nice alternative narrative.”