Charlize Theron Doesn't Believe in Marriage

Charlize Theron says she doesn't believe in marriage.

The actress, who's currently starring alongside Will Smith in new movie Hancock, says seeing her mother shoot her abusive father when she was growing up put her off marriage for life.

She tells the new issue of Britain's Elle magazine, "I believe in love but I don't believe in marriage. I saw my mother unhappy every day. What happened with my father was extreme, but my mother and I couldn't let it determine the rest of our lives.

"Back then if a woman was unhappy, she just had to put up with it. As a kid I didn't dream about my wedding day because I knew marriage wasn't exactly the stuff of dreams. I also don't believe in 'happy ever after'. Things could end tomorrow."

But the 32-year-old Oscar winner says she does wear a Victorian gold locket containing a strand of hair from her boyfriend of seven years, Stuart Townsend.

She says every time they part he puts "a little love note" in it and that Stuart has made her "softer" while her mother wanted her to be "invincible".

Following her Oscar win for 'Monster' in 2003, many feared Theron would follow down the same destructive path as Paris Hilton and Lindsay. But not so, says Charlize.

She adds, "There is a decorum that I believe in that just doesn't exist in Hollywood any more. I point blank refuse to be part of the way it is now.

"I don't have hang-ups about the way I look. I see myself in the mirror when I am all done up and think I look pretty hot."