Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti had two sons together, Carlo Ponti Jr. and Edoardo Ponti. When she became pregnant with her older son, Carlo Jr., she wasn't afraid that her career might end after becoming a mother. "Nothing mattered to me but my baby. If necessary, I would have given up my work to have a child," the actress wrote in the book "Women and Beauty" (via Closer Weekly).

She would go on to describe motherhood as being "the greatest role of [her] life." As Loren wrote in her memoir, "Nothing, not even winning an Oscar, can compete with the pleasure and sense of accomplishment it has given me. ... For me, nothing could substitute motherhood." 

Both of Loren's sons have been highly successful in their own right, with Carlo Jr. having a successful career as an orchestra conductor and Edoardo following his mom into show business as a director. He even directed his mother in "The Life Ahead."