Juliette Binoche is one of the greatest actresses of her generation. An icon in her own right, she has a career that has been talked about, analyzed, and reanalyzed more times than anyone could count.

But not everything about Binoche is so open or open to interpretation. Her personal life is as much a secret as her professional life is not.

The actress has two children, has never had a husband, and never really depended on any of her partners in life. She has always done things her way and taken care of everything she needed to without making a fuss about it.

Being on her own for so long effectively made her the husband of her family. But she would not mind being someone's wife now.

Juliette Binoche Wants a Husband, Not a Wife

Binoche is never one to be boxed. That is probably why she has never married.

But it was always in her plans to have children. The actress has two children with two different partners — son Raphael, who she had with professional scuba diver Andre Halle on September 2, 1993, and daughter Hana, who she had with actor Benoit Magimel on December 16, 1999.

And it was always her intention to be responsible for them, regardless of whether their fathers were in her life.

"I think it is my responsibility because I wanted those babies," she told Sydney Morning Herald in February 2015. "I have always organised things and I am not expecting anything from those fathers."

Juliette Binoche might be looking for a husband even now but she won't settle for less.

Binoche might be looking for a husband even now, but she won't settle for less. (Photo: Juliette Binoche/Instagram)

Her own childhood and her parents' divorce made her feel like men did not really understand the effort it takes to raise children. Her experiences influenced her parenting decisions.

Romantic relationships, however, always made Binoche think twice. "A relationship is a quest, and how you want to share it is for me a big question," she told the publication. She had her priorities laid out — her children and career were at the top of her list.

Therefore, she needed someone that was happy with her current arrangements. "You have to have someone who is patient and understanding and happy to be at home," she stated.

Binoche admitted she had almost become the "husband of [her] family" and had not "found a wife." That did not, however, mean she did not want a partner.

"But I don't want a wife, I want a husband, someone who is as passionate and risk-taking as I am," she said.

Juliette Binoche’s Long-Term Secret Partner

Among all the questions Binoche gets, queries about her relationship status might be the most repeated. And as secretive as the Paradise Highway star is about her love life, she does not hesitate to reveal some stuff.

During the aforementioned interview, she mentioned she had been in a relationship "for a long time." However, it was not a conventional one.

"It comes from a deep, loving friendship. It is sexual as well," she said but added a caveat — she was not sure the person was THE one. Their long-distance situation did not help, and nor did her stringent requirements.

She was still in that relationship when she gave an interview to The Guardian in June 2017. However, in both these conversations, she revealed nothing about who the person was.

Binoche, other than Halle and Magimel, also dated Leos Carax in the 1990s, Patrick Muldoon, and Santiago Amigorena. She was even proposed to four times, all of which she ignored.

As for her time with Carax, she worked with him on a movie, during the shoot of which she almost ended up dead.

She almost drowned in the Seine while shooting a scene, and her time underwater, gasping for air, made her realize she had to always put herself first. Binoche has carried that mentality since.

As her New York Times' T Magazine piece from October 2021 notes, the actress is still fully focused on what she loves doing — "food, sex, drugs, attention."

All this is to say that Binoche will probably not settle for anything less than her equal, whether that be about getting a husband or a movie role. And even if she finds someone, who's to say she will ever talk about it?