Los Angeles, Nov 15 (IANS): Veteran actress Goldie Hawn says she never thought she would be an actress.

Instead, the "First Wives Club" star once saw herself owning a dancing school, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I thought my life would look like a normal, what we call, a normal person," Hawn said on a Australian TV program.

"I got married, I had children, I had a white picket fence, I had my own dancing school and I lived happily ever after. That's what I thought when I was 17 and 18, and 19. And then things suddenly changed," Hawn added.

The 70-year-old actress has children Kate, 37, and Oliver, 40, with her ex-husband Bill Hudson and Wyatt Russell, 30, with her long term partner Kurt Russell.

She says for her, the key to being happy is to "constantly work" on her relationship.

"We have our ups and downs like everybody else. You have to want to stay together, and we really want to. Therefore you work to be together," Hawn said.

"The ups and downs of life are there. It is not always happy. What we want to help children with is, just because you feel sad or happy or depressed doesn't mean that is who you are. We want them to know, 'I am really sad right now but I am not a sad person.' I always wanted to understand the causes of happiness. I'm a bit of a scientist I guess you could say," she added.