Zoe Saldana’s Husband Took Her Last Name: ‘I Tried To Talk Him Out Of It’

Zoe Saldana’s husband, Marco Perego, was dead set on becoming a Saldana.

When the couple wed in 2013, the actress said she attempted to dissuade him from making that decision, as she feared he would get flak for it.

“I tried to talk him out of it,” Zoe, 36, told InStyle in an interview for their July 2015 issue. “I told him, ‘If you use my name, you’re going to be emasculated by your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world.”

But Marco was undeterred.

“Marco looks up at me and says [she puts on his Italian accent], ‘Ah, Zoe, I don’t give a sheet,'” she told the mag.

The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star, 36, announced the birth of her twin boys Cy and Bowie in January, and is now the sole female in her home – something the star dubbed “absolute irony.”

“It’s not like I’ve had issues with men; I’ve always just been independent to a fault,” she said. “I’ve always believed it’s my birthright to behave as an equal on this earth and to be entitled to everything and anything.

“That said, I’ve had my experiences of heartbreak when it comes to choosing partners who wanted to be equals but didn’t have the ability to actually reciprocate the respect,” she added.

Zoe, who will reprise her role as Neytiri in 2017’s “Avatar” sequel, said her husband has been instrumental in “lowering her guard.”

“Finally, when we had our boys, I looked at my husband and I realized: I was meant for you, and you were meant for me. I’ve always felt comfortable around men as long as they were friends,” she told the mag, which will hit newsstands on Friday. “Now I finally feel comfortable with my lover. I don’t want to be separate. I want my church. I want to live inside the religion of our own little family.”

— Erin O’Sullivan