Julie Andrews on why her children always came before her career.

She always thought motherhood was important.

Julie Andrews has opened about how she tried to juggle motherhood and work during the height of her acting career while playing Maria in The Sound of Music and how ultimately she chose to be a non-working mum.

Andrews has one biological daughter, Emma from her former husband, Tony Walton. After her split from Walton, Andrews got together with a director from Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Blake Edwards who she married in 1969. From her new marriage Andrews gained two stepchildren, Jennifer and Geoffrey. Later she adopted two children – Amelia and Joanna – after a failed attempt to have children with Edwards. All up, Andrews has five children.

“As a mother my children have always come first,” Julie Andrews said in a recent interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly (AWW).

She told the magazine that even as a working mother she at least always tried to take the kids with her when she could. She admits that it wasn't easy juggling all of her commitments, but on the set of The Sound of Music there were at least other children to play with.

"I tried to make things silly and funny, so we all had a good time," she told AWW.

After her time on The Sound of Music, Andrews became a stepmother and opened up in her interview about how that was particularly hard at the time as divorce was not as common then as it is now. She admits that there was a huge stigma around stepmothers which she found difficult.

“And besides being a stepmother, I’m an adoptive mother, too. I have my natural-born daughter and Blake’s two children, and then we adopted two children … can you imagine the hodge-podge?” she told the Australian magazine.

Andrews' two adopted daughters are from Vietnam. While Andrews and Edwards wanted children together it had never eventuated, so they were thrilled when they got their two beautiful girls from Saigon.

This brought another adjustment to Andrew's mothering style because bringing up children from another country meant some things had to be done differently. But she told AWW that, "love kept us going."

After her adoption, Andrews stopped working in order to be there for her children. She spoke about how difficult managing work and children was.

“To make a proper protein breakfast for them before school in the morning. To go to parent-teacher interviews. It is important. I do admire women who manage to do both," she told AWW.

What do you think about juggling a career and motherhood? 

SCROLL THROUGH the gallery to see what the kids from The Sound of Music look like now...

Want more? Try:

"The 15 things you didn't know about The Sound of Music." 

"A letter from a stay-at-home mum to a working mum, and vice versa."