‘I go to bed early. I eat better’: Zoe Saldana credits her children with ‘keeping her out of trouble’

The actor compared herself to Benjamin Button after being complimented on her youthful looks

Zoe Saldana has revealed her surprising secret to looking youthful: her children.

The Guardians of the Galaxy star, 44, has three children, including seven-year-old twins Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio, and five-year-old Zen Anton Hilario.

In an interview with People about her forthcoming role in Reese Witherspoon’s Netflix series From Scratch, Saldana was told she looks as young today as she did two decades ago when she starred in Centre Stage.

She responded: “It’s like Benjamin Button, I’ll take that as a compliment.

“I think having children keeps me out of trouble a lot. I go to bed early. I eat better. I sleep longer sometimes. I’m back to sleeping.”

Saldana explained she previously had issues with sleeping and added: “Right before I had [children], I was very much of the policy of work hard, play hard. And I loved my life like that.

“But I feel like having children happened at the right time for me because in your mid-thirties to late thirties, early forties, that’s when you go to bed thinking that you’re one thing, and you wake up feeling like something else.

“And I started having kids during that time. So that saved me a lot.”

Saldana, who shares her children with husband Marco Perego, often posts pictures of her family life on social media.

In May, she posted a series of photographs of her kids to mark Mother’s Day, including a snap of all three boys painting her face and another of her whole family.

She wrote in the caption: “My reason, my destiny, my mirrors. On Mother’s Day I have you to thank. I hold you responsible for my sleepless nights, my guilt, my painful growth, my salty tears, my endless obsession with being responsible for you – for all that, I thank you.

“If by any chance time were to stop and my life would hit a reset, I would still choose you, a million times over. And I would do it again and again… All four of you. My favourite people.”