Cameron Diaz has explained her decision to step away from acting.

Diaz, who last starred in the 2014 remake of Annie, appeared on Kevin Hart’s talk show, Hart To Heart, where she opened up about stepping back from Hollywood to self-manage her life.

“When you do something at a really high level for a long period of time, when you’re the person that’s sort of delivering on this one thing, everything around, all parts of you that isn’t that, has to sort of be handed off to other people,” Diaz said.

“Just, the management of me as a human being… Cameron Diaz is a machine. But for my personal, spiritual self, I was realising that one part of me that functioned at a high level wasn’t enough.

“It’s fun to do, I love it, I love acting, I could go forever, I sometimes feel like I have unlimited energy and inertia. I just looked around and there were so many parts of my life that I wasn’t touching and that I wasn’t managing, and I couldn’t really manage, because everything was so massive.”

Diaz, 48, came to this realisation aged 40 and decided to switch focus to her family and personal life.

“I have a lot of great friends and incredible people who supported me for so long, and I believe it’s about the people you have in your life who help you keep things moving,” Diaz said.

“I had some amazing friends but I had other people who were not serving my best interests always, but you don’t have time to figure those things out if you are just going with blinders on, you’re in the tunnel.”

She added: “For me, I just really wanted to make my life manageable by me. My routine in a day is literally what I can manage to do by myself. It’s the best feeling. I feel whole.”

Diaz made her film debut in 1994’s The Mask opposite Jim Carrey at the age of 21, before going on to star in a host of films including My Best Friend’s Wedding, There’s Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich and Vanilla Sky.

She also previously told Gwyneth Paltrow that she had found “peace” following her retirement from acting.

In December 2019, the actor welcomed baby daughter Raddix with husband and Good Charlotte frontman Benji Madden.