Julia Roberts says she 'regrets' not attending college while growing up, admits 'it wasn’t in my cards'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Julia Roberts has opened up on why she never attended college. In a conversation between Roberts, 56, and filmmaker Richard Curtis published in British Vogue, the 'Leave the World Behind' star spoke about not receiving higher education as a "regret" in her life. "But I couldn’t," she told the outlet, adding "It wasn’t in my cards." 

When Curtis, whom Roberts first met while working on the 1999 movie 'Notting Hill', asked if Roberts "wasn't clever enough" for college, the Academy Award-winning actor laughed.

Julia Roberts said her family didn't have money

"No, I mean, my family didn’t have the money. And I had no scholarship potential," she said, adding "That kind of thing. But as my kids have gone through the college process now, and looking for schools and talking about what they are interested in learning more about and all that, it does just fill me with a longing for that academic space."

"I want to learn about anthropology! Where’s that academic space for someone like me?" she added. "It doesn’t really exist, but…," she continued.

Julia Roberts said that Martin Luther King Jr paid her hospital bills 

Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia in 1967. In a 2022 interview with Gayle King, she said that Martin Luther King Jr and his wife Coretta Scott King, who were friends with her parents Walter Roberts and Betty Lou Bredemus, paid the hospital bill for her birth because her own parents "couldn't."

Roberts' parents ran a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop, as Roberts explained at the time. They grew friendly with the King family after Coretta Scott King "called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids."

“My mom worked a full-time job and raised three girls pretty much on her own,” Roberts told People of her mother Betty in a 2017 cover story. “My brother [actor Eric Roberts] is older, so he was gone and out of the house. She never showed the strain of it,” she added.

Julia Roberts reveals why she almost turned down her role as Anna Scott in ‘Notting Hill'

Meaww previously reported that Julia Roberts has disclosed the challenges she faced while playing the role of Anna Scott. In a candid interview in the Vogue's February issue, she revealed that she almost rejected the part and felt awkward portraying a celebrity. 

One of the reasons why Julia was hesitant to take the role of Anna Scott was that she felt uncomfortable with the character’s personality and behavior. She said, “Honestly, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was ['Notting Hill'].

"Playing a movie actress, I was so uncomfortable! I mean, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I almost didn’t take the part because it just seemed – oh, it just seemed so awkward, I didn’t even know how to play that person," she added.