'The Holiday's Cameron Diaz & Kate Winslet's Different Paths to Love

Actresses Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet may have been unlucky in their search for love in the rom-com "The Holiday," but they eventually found love and happiness. In real life, their stories could not have been more different. Winslet married and divorced twice but ultimately found happiness with her third husband. On the other hand, Diaz did not find love at 20, like she thought she would, but she finally found her forever on her first attempt and became a mom at 47.

Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet won their fan's hearts with their remarkable appearances as Amanda Woods and Iris in the 2006 rom-com "The Holiday." In the ensuing years, there was talk of the duo filming a sequel that would include all of the original cast.

However, one original cast member, Eli Wallach, would be absent as he passed away in 2014. The actor, who played Arthur Abbott, an elderly screenwriter Iris befriends and who ends up changing her life, died of natural causes at 98.

The excitement that came with the notion that fans would see their favorite characters in the sequel of the cult classic soon died down after the film's director Nancy Meyers shut down the rumors of a possible sequel.

She posted that fans had been messaging her about a possible sequel, even posting a grab of an article by DailyMail with a picture of Diaz and Winslet signing on for the sequel. She captioned the post:

"So many DM'd about the -- sorry, but it's not true."

"The Holiday" is a romantic comedy about two lovelorn strangers who swap homes during the Christmas season in a quest to escape their respective heartaches.

Amanda (played by Cameron Diaz) jets to England to live in Iris's cozy English country cottage, as Iris (played by Kate Winslet), also flees her home to live in Amanda's airy Los Angeles apartment.

Even though their love lives on the show are not anything to write home about, it resonated highly with the actress' real life, albeit differently. At the time of filming, Diaz was 33 and was not entertaining thoughts of marriage, while Winslet had already been through a failed union.

Chatting with Bill Maher in 2009, Diaz confessed that when she was younger, she always dreamed about being married and having kids by the time she was 20, like her parents.

But when she got to that age, she realized things did not always work as planned, and she did not want to be married and become a mom so young. Instead, she chose to follow the opportunities life threw her way.

At 37, Diaz was photographed holding her sister's baby while being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but even then, she was still single.

On the flip side, by the time of filming "The Holiday," Winslet, then-31, was already married, divorced, and well on her second marriage. She married her first husband, assistant director Jim Threapleton in 1998, and had their child, daughter Mia Honey Threapleton, in 2000.

Sadly, their union fell apart soon after, and they divorced in 2001. Winslet moved on and fell in love with director Sam Mendes, marrying him in 2003. They had their son Joe Alfie Mendes that same year.

Kate Winslet & Cameron Diaz — One Met Her Husband at a Party, Another One During a Fire

Unlucky as her character Iris was in love, Winslet's real life was incredibly different. She met her first husband on the set of "Hideous Kinky," where he was an assistant director. Their three-year marriage culminated in a daughter, but the pair divorced in 2001 because of Threapleton's unreasonable behavior.

Soon after her divorce, Winslet met her second husband, Sam Mendes. However, theirs was business before pleasure, and their first meeting was to discuss Winslet's possible involvement in Mendes' productions.

Winslet's friend Emma Thompson ultimately played cupid, after inviting them to a barbecue. They began dating soon after, with people speculating that there was an overlap in her relationships. In May 2003, the lovebirds eloped while vacationing in the West Indies.

Compared to her first marriage, her union with Mendes seemed destined for life. They happily raised their children — Mia and Joe — and even reportedly became closer after Mendes directed "The Titanic." Unfortunately, Winslet and Mendes split a year after the film came out. Based on a statement by their lawyer, they split amicably and were fully committed to co-parenting their children.

There were plenty of theories about the possible cause of their divorce. Mendes shed some light on the probable cause, saying that while he liked winding up his day with a baseball game or something of the sort, Winslet loved bringing her work home. Even so, Winslet never revealed the details surrounding the unraveling of her two marriages, instead disclosing that she was proud it remained a mystery:

"No one really knows what has happened in my life. No one really knows why my first marriage didn't last; no one knows why my second didn't. And I'm proud of those silences."

The third time's a charm, and Winslet proved how right that was when she fell in love for the third time. "The Mountain Between Us" actress and her third husband met under potentially disastrous circumstances, but their love has stood the test of time.

The actress was vacationing at billionaire Richard Branson's Necker Island when their residence caught fire. Everyone who came to rescue them had left any equipment behind, except for Branson's nephew Ned Rocknroll (real name Edward Abel Smith), who had a head torch and a pair of shoes. Winslet recalled:

"So I married him! I was like, 'I'll go for the guy with a head torch!'"

It took three attempts for Winslet to find love, but Cameron had it reasonably easy. She and her husband, "Good Charlotte" guitarist Benji Madden, met through Nicole Richie — daughter of the music legend Lionel Richie and wife to Benji''s twin brother, Joel.

Diaz disclosed that while Nicole and Joel did not set her up with Benji, they were in the same room because of them. She retold of the moment she met the love of her life:

"I met [Benji] through my now sister-in-law and brother-in-law. I met them first, and then they didn't set us up, but we were in the same room because of them, and then we found each other."

Diaz was interested in Benji from the moment her eyes set on him, and she remembers thinking he was special and the hidden gem in her life. They married in 2015 and had their first daughter Reddix in 2019.

What Kate Winslet & Cameron Diaz Said About Their Marriages

Finding true marital happiness was tumultuous for Winslet, but she found her true love in Smith. After meeting Smith in 2011, they fell in love and married the following year in New York.

In 2013, they welcomed their son Bear Blaze. Life has been good for the actress, and besides a snowballing acting career in the past decade, she has also enjoyed a happy marriage.

When asked why she thinks her current marriage is working while her previous ones didn't, the "Ammonite" actress said that she had much growing up to do in the past years.

She credits her marriage success to loving herself more before she learned to love somebody else. She added:

"For me, becoming truly comfortable with who I am, and how I feel and how I look, and the person I have become has a great impact on how I am able to love. I'm at peace with me in this decade -- more than I ever was during my twenties."

Winslet revealed that even as they relish their love for one another, jealousy is unacceptable in her marriage. A renowned movie star, her work involves acting out love scenes and kissing other men -- and women -- onscreen.

She disclosed that being with a jealous person could never work for her. She also believes that the vice is a distressing attribute for someone to have because when one is in a loving and supportive relationship, those aspects should overrule jealousy.

She revealed that while she still believed in unconditional love, she also knows that it helps to know one's mind and be one's own person within a relationship or marriage.

Her third marriage appears to have been her kismet, and she and Smith are not afraid to openly show their love and admiration for each other. In recent years, they have been photographed numerously acting all lovey-dovey.

And in almost all of their recent photos, the pair always hold hands whenever out in public. The situation is no different for Diaz, who appears incredibly happy in her marriage.

Even with an idyllic career that has seen her bag numerous accolades, she still thinks that her husband is the best thing to ever happen to her:

"Getting married to him was the best thing that ever happened to me. My husband's the best."

"The Sweetest Thing" actress praised her husband, saying he was the most incredible human being and partner, noting that even though marriages are complicated and need work, she had someone willing to do the work with her.

Speaking to Ellen Degeneres, Diaz joked that she had several nicknames for her beau, ranging from "baby," "bae," "buh," all the way to "ugh."

What Are the Latest Updates in Kate Winslet & Cameron Diaz's Lives?

Away from her love life, Winslet is looking to add to her eclectic acting CV with numerous more projects in the future and is not leaving her loved ones behind.

She is set to star alongside her 22-year-old daughter Mia in "I Am Ruth," a wintry tale about a mom who struggles to help her daughter from being entirely consumed by social media.

Recalling how the media almost ruined her life with the cooked-up stories, she emphasizes the importance of parenting intentionally and protecting kids from the hurtful and potentially life-endangering negativity of the media and now the globally inevitable social media.

Even as Winslet looks to build her career, Diaz is also stepping back into the scenes after an 8-year-long hiatus. Diaz took a break from the scenes in 2014 to focus on other things, such as writing her book "The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time."

However, in 2018, she announced she was retiring from acting entirely. Fans were therefore surprised, albeit pleasantly, when the "Charlie's Angels" actress made her return to star in the action-comedy flick "Back In Action," alongside Jamie Foxx.

The film may, however, be her very last as she plans on wrapping up her acting career for good. She is hell-bent on being a present mom to Raddix, and that is almost impossible with her back-to-back 10-hour workdays.

An insider told Dailymail that Diaz hated being away from her daughter. Even though she would often see her family when shooting, it was a far cry from being with them all the time. The source noted:

"Cameron loves being a mom more than anything in the world."

The intensive work schedules are also reportedly too much for her husband, despite his willingness to wholly support her and her career.

A confrontation on the set of the film gave a partial insight into why the actress is choosing to end her career. A source shared that Foxx had had a meltdown on set that resulted in firing the executive producer, two directors, and his driver.

And while Diaz and Foxx are still on good terms and remain as close as they've always been, the source revealed that such drama and confrontation was part of the reason Diaz chose to retire in the first place. "This is why she retired from the business in the first place. She has already proven herself in the industry and has nothing left to prove to anyone," the source said.