Sally Field Explains How Becoming A Mom At 23 'Saved' Her

Sally Field revealed in a candid new interview that becoming a mom at a young age essentially saved her life.

Having my first son, Peter ... first of all, I wasnt alone anymore, the actor said on a Wednesday episode of Julia Louis-Dreyfus podcast, Wiser Than Me .

I was so young. I was just 23, Field said of giving birth to her first child in 1969.

There was something in me that felt so fiercely about him that I felt If I can take care of him, I can take care of myself. And goddamn it, Im going to take care of him. I dont care if I go down, she said. It started to connect with a fierceness in me that I didnt recognize.

And Ive said this to him this big, grown-up, now middle-aged man he saved my life, because its also who he was, the Forrest Gump star said. He was so gentle and compliant. He wasnt like the kid who was always sick or always crying all the time.

She added, He was always this creature brought into my life that just, forever after, was my savior.

Field has three sons: Peter Craig, Eli Craig and Sam Greisman.

In a 2012 speech , the entertainer said that her sons were the three things I am most proud of in my life.

They are kind and loving, productive human beings, each very different from the other, she said.