Penelope Cruz may have an impressive career as an A-list actress but nothing makes her happier than being a mom to her two children, Luna, nine, and Leo, 12.
Along with her husband, Javier Bardem, 54, Penelope, 49, is raising her son and daughter away from the limelight - and she loves their family dynamic.
The couple have successfully shielded their offspring from the bright lights of Hollywood. So much so that for the longest time, they didn't understand what their parents did for a living.
"They know that we do movies, but I don’t think they know what that means or what is that all about," Javier told People in 2017. "It’s fine. We don’t have anything in our house that reminds them that we are actors. We really don’t care about that."
In the past, the children have visited their parents on the set of their movies, most famously when Javier was working on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in Australia.
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Luna and Leo played on warships which had been built for the movie and they had pirate costumes too. However, the Little Mermaid actor insisted that his kids just thought it was a Disney ride.
While they never share photos of their children and there are very few snapshots of the family all together, the photos that have been made public show Luna and Leo have inherited their Spanish parents' olive skin and raven-colored hair.
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After their son was born, Penelope explained why it was so important to keep his life private. In an interview with Vogue in 2011, she said: "I want my son — and my kids if I have more — to grow up in a way that is as anonymous as possible.
The fact that his father and I have chosen to do the work that we do doesn't give anybody the right to invade our privacy."
Penelope told The Telegraph: "You will never see a picture of my kids on Instagram."
The couple have stuck to their word. It's clear both Penelope and Javier adore being parents, and she told Marie Claire that she always "really wanted to be a mother."
"When I was four or five, I was already performing, and the characters in my games were always mothers. I really wanted to be a mother, for as long as I can remember," she explained.
"But I did it when I felt the time was right — the right time, the right person."
The pair were married in 2010 and predominantly live in Madrid, Spain. They both scaled back their careers to focus more on family and Penelope still insists this is her most important role to date.
"I don't think of myself as a role model for anyone other than my children, as they see me every day, and the actions of their mother and father are the most important to them," she told Vogue Arabia. "This is a huge responsibility, and my biggest mission in life is to try to do that well."
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