Natalie Portman prefers to raise her family in The City of Light as opposed to under the Hollywood stars.
The “Black Swan” actress, who moved to Paris in 2014, revealed she loves living in a European city that’s bustling but has a culture that’s polite and “very good at privacy.”
“Even when it’s cold and gray, there’s always some incredible exhibit or concert or dinner party or writers in town; something fascinating and stimulating happening… and the frequent vacations are so clutch!” Portman told fashion outlet Net-a-Porter on Monday.
Portman, 43, pushed back on a stereotype about how French residents are rude, pointing out the “weird” social differences between the US and France.
“I find the people here are actually incredibly friendly – you just have to know how to interact, so that we’re not the ones being rude,” Portman said. “Now, when I go back to the US, I’m like, oh, I would go into a store and not say hello to everyone there? It’s weird.”
The “V for Vendetta” star insisted that cultural differences do not equal rudeness.
“I think we have an assumption that Western cultures are all the same, and kind of evened out by all this pop culture that everyone consumes,” Portman claimed. “It’s not true: it’s extremely specific here.”
In 2014, Portman ditched Los Angeles and moved to Paris alongside her then-husband Benjamin Millepied, whom she met when he was a choreographer and dancer on the set of “Black Swan.”
The Oscar winner shares two children, Aleph,13, and Amalia, 8, with Millepied.
But the couple ended up calling it quits and finalized their divorce in March 2024 after Millepied had an alleged affair with a 25-year-old climate activist named Camille Étienne.
The actress is now reportedly dating French musician Tanguy Destable.
Portman stayed in France following the breakup with Millepied and praised how parents raise kids in France.
“All the kids that come to my house are, like, ‘bonjour Madame’ – and give me the bise [cheek-to-cheek kiss],” Portman told the outlet. “And before they leave, they are, like, ‘thank you for having me’ – and if I’m not nearby, they’ll come and find me to say it.”
Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and rose to fame as a teenage star acting in films like “Heat,” “Mars Attacks” and “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.”
She’s not the only star who ditched the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles for a better family life.
In 2014, Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves, planted their roots in Austin, Texas.
The “Interstellar” actor, who was born and raised in the Lone Star State, said he always planned to return and raise a family and to be closer to his mother and two older brothers, who also live in Texas.
“I wanted them to have what I grew up around… There’s a solid… amount of common sense that runs through it, it’s untalked about, but we understand it here,” McConaughey told “Today” in 2014.
“Stranger Things” actress Millie Bobby Brown swapped Hollywood for farm life in rural Georgia with her husband Jake Bongiovi, the son of singer Jon Bon Jovi.
The couple tied the knot in May 2024 and Brown insisted that she loved the lifestyle during a March 2025 interview with Vanity Fair, but added that the country life is not easy.
“If you’re not picking up horse s–t or washing a cow with your bare hands, then that life is not made for you. At all,” she told the outlet.
