Bullock’s new center

last updated 8 January 2015

Sandra Bullock has emerged from a very dark period of her life, said Sheryl Garratt in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). “I feel happier and younger now than I did 10 years ago,” says the 49-year-old actress, who has a 3-year-old adopted son, Louis. “I looked old, then, and I felt like an old person falling apart. Work was my life.” She had grown disenchanted with Hollywood, and was tired of making mediocre romantic comedies. “People love those films,” she says wearily. “And I get it. You know what’s going to happen, and we all fantasize that’s what really happens.” Bullock realized something was missing from her life, and in 2006 began the long adoption process with her then-husband Jesse James, a custom motorbike builder. When the adoption call finally came four years later, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Her marriage had just fallen apart after James’s infidelity with a tattoo model caused a national sensation. She was committed to a hectic work schedule. She didn’t even have any baby supplies. “There was no crib, nothing.” But when Bullock met Louis, soon after he was born in New Orleans, her panic instantly abated. “All I said was, ‘Oh there you are,’” she says softly. “And that was it.”