The Avatar beauty reveals she was worried the Italian artist would be "emasculated" by choosing to go against marriage tradition, where the wife takes the husband's name, but he refused to listen.

She tells America's InStyle magazine, "I tried to talk him out of it. I told him, 'If you use my name you are going to be emasculated by your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world'. But Marco looks up at me and says, 'Ah, Zoe, I don't give a damn.'"

The couple welcomed its first children, twin sons Bowie and Cy, in November (14) and the new mum admits finding love with Perego has changed her for the better.

She says, "Since I have been with Marco, I have been lowering my guard. Finally when we had our boys, I looked at my husband and I realised, 'I was meant for you and you were meant for me.'"

Saldana previously dated Bradley Cooper following the end of her engagement to her boyfriend of 11 years, Keith Britton, in 2011.