Halle Berry admits to suicide attempt

Actress Halle Berry poses during a photocall to promote her latest film ''Perfect Stranger'' (''Verfuehrung einer Fremden'') in Berlin March 24, 2007.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry says in a magazine interview that she was so depressed after her 1997 breakup with ex-husband and baseball star David Justice that she tried to take her own life.

In this coming Sunday's issue of Parade magazine, Berry says that since then and following a second divorce, she has learned to take control of her own life and now, at age 40, is considering motherhood.

"I was sitting in my car, and I knew the gas was coming when I had an image of my mother finding me," Berry says of the suicide attempt. "She sacrificed so much for her children, and to end my life would be an incredibly selfish thing to do.

"My sense of worth was so low. I had to reprogram myself to see the good in me. Because someone didn't love me didn't mean I was unlovable. I promised myself I would never be a coward again," Berry tells Parade.

Her roles have ranged from the beautiful secret agent Jinx in the James Bond movie "Die Another Day" to the down-on-her-luck waitress in 2001's "Monster's Ball," which won her the best actress Oscar.

She was married to Justice for nearly five years in the early 1990s before her star began to rise after portraying singer/actress Dorothy Dandridge in the 1999 television movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge."

Berry's second marriage, to singer Eric Benet, lasted four years until 2005, when they divorced in a highly publicized breakup.

"We were in sex rehab after one year. I wish I had left then, but I was putting everyone's needs before mine," she tells Parade. "If I hadn't gone through the first breakup and made that promise to myself, this would have leveled me. I would have walked into moving traffic."

Berry credits therapy and counseling for helping her to take control of her life. Now she is dating male model Gabriel Aubry, who is 10 years younger than her.

"My sights are set on a different chapter in my life, which is motherhood. That's the goal I clearly have set for myself."

Reuters/Nielsen