Halle Berry: I tried suicide after failed marriage

The 40-year-old former Bond Girl tried to poison herself with carbon monoxide gas by trailing a pipe into her car from the exhaust.

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She became so depressed towards the end of her stormy marriage to baseball player David Justice that it was too much to bear, she said in a magazine interview.

Miss Berry said that as gas filled the car, she came to her senses when she saw a vision of her mother and remembered the hardship she went through for her and her siblings.

She said: "I was sitting in my car, and I knew the gas was coming, when I had an image of my mother finding me.

"She sacrificed so much for her children, and to end my life would be an incredibly selfish thing to do."

Speaking of what put her in that state of mind, she said: "It was all about a relationship. 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.

Referring to her five-year marriage to Justice which ended in divorce in June 1997, she added: "I promised myself I would never be a coward again."

But the actress - who became the only black woman to win a best actress Oscar with Monster's Ball in 2000 - went on to suffer more hardship in her second marriage to singer Eric Benet.

She confessed she use to be attracted to bad relationships - but has recently undergone therapy to discover her inner strength.

She said: "I do something over and over until finally I get it. That's been my path of breaking destructive patterns."

Miss Berry, who is now dating model Gabriel Aubry, described her four-year marriage to Benet which ended in divorce in January 2005 as 'really horrific'.

She added: "We were in sex rehab after one year. I wish I had left then, but I was putting everyone's needs before mine.

"If I had not made that promise to myself, this would have levelled me. I would have walked into moving traffic."

The actress said she had finally been able to find security in her love life by going through therapy.

She said: "I've developed into someone who takes responsibility for my choices. When I realized I had the power to change, it was eye-opening. It gave me a lot of hope."

And she also confessed that her next goal is motherhood with her toyboy boyfriend - who is a decade younger than her.

She added, in her interview with the next edition of Parade magazine: "I've accomplished things I never thought I would. Now my sights are set on a different chapter in my life, which is motherhood. That's the goal I have very clearly set for myself."