Private Penelope Cruz Opens Up and Cries About Her Newborn Son

Fiercely private actress Penelope Cruz has kept mum about becoming a mom since giving birth to son Leonardo with husband (and fellow Oscar winner) Javier Bardem this past January. But the actress recently opened up about her son in the June issue of Vogue.

"From the first second, you feel so much love. It is a revolutionary experience," she tells the magazine in tears. "That’s the best way I can describe it. It transforms you completely, in a second. Nature is very wise and gives you nine months to prepare, but in that moment -- when you see that face, you are transformed forever.”

Cruz adds that she couldn't imagine how life-changing motherhood would be. “Even if you have heard from all your friends and family, ‘This is what’s going to happen,’ until it happens to you, it’s hard to understand in your soul," she says.

Always protective of her private life, Cruz is determined that Leonardo will be shielded from the glare of photographers. “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.”

Cruz found out she was pregnant while filming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with Johnny Depp (which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14). A rigorous shoot, Cruz has said that the crew was very understanding about her condition. “I was pregnant and a pirate," Cruz tells Vogue. "A beautiful experience.”

Good friend Salma Hayek isn't surprised at how quickly Cruz adapted to being a mom. "Penelope is a motherly creature, a warrior by nature," Hayek explains to Vogue. "I told her that little boy is the luckiest boy in the world.”

Cruz has always been involved in charity work to help children, especially after volunteering in one of Mother Teresa's orphanages in Calcutta at the age of 22 (even meeting the humanitarian herself). That commitment has only intensified since she had, as she calls him, "beautiful Leonardo."

Says Cruz: “Even if you were aware of children and felt compassion, when you have your own, it multiplies. It breaks your heart to know that there are so many children in the world suffering so much.”

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/private-penelope-cruz-opens-and-cries-about-her-newborn-son/1-a-350220

Gabrielle Union Garcelle Beauvais Genelle Frenoy Georgianna Robertson Georgina Grenville Gina Carano