Major success feels a bit like a coronation. Like I'd become a king. I was one of the most famous people in the world loved and hated in equal measure. I couldn't see anything bad with it. It made me a happy person.

I always loved working as an actress but I didn't understand why I couldn't just opt out of being famous. And then I realized you can and I think I did. And eventually I came to understand that you can do that and also keep working.

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Touring is tough. You're almost in a haze because you don't really know where you are half the time: You're in a hotel room one moment and the next thing you know you're onstage performing for 60 000 people then you're back on an airplane. It's very hectic and I couldn't do it without my family.

I married him because he told me it was the only way he could protect me. If we were just manager and client my family could do whatever they wanted to get me back but if I was his wife they couldn't.

The breakdown of the black community in order to maintain slavery began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married because you couldn't have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river.

A few years ago you couldn't go from TV to film. It was like a 'no no' but I believe when you find a plan and purpose that God has for your life there's not anything man can do to you. Especially when your faith is not really standing in the wisdom of man you're really standing in the wisdom of God.

I don't really go down one path. I wouldn't call myself a Buddhist or a Catholic or a Christian or a Muslim or Jewish. I couldn't put myself into any organized faith.

We decided to try in vitro because both Peter and I felt we couldn't handle another failure. When I miscarried after that we had to come to terms with the possibility that this wasn't meant to be.

It has always felt like a failure that Bjorn and I couldn't keep our family together. You never get it back but to this day I don't regret splitting up. The reason behind our separation is one of those things I definitely don't want to go into!