Brooke Shields has finally taken something positive away from her failed first marriage after previously calling it "a mistake".
The 58-year-old was married to former world number one tennis player, Andre Agassi, 53, from 1997 until 1999, when they split largely because of his addiction to crystal meth.
In a new interview with AARP The Magazine, Brooke reflected on their short-lived marriage – they dated for four years before they wed – and admitted it felt good to have his fame overshadowed hers.
"With Andre, it also felt good to feel smaller than another, because he was so famous and number one in the world," she recalled.
"Everywhere we went, he had tons of bodyguards. I could sit back because it wasn't my world."
Brooke added: "He was the first one out of the car when we arrived at events. It was a real kind of respite."
The actress also has Andre to thank for helping her to separate from her overbearing late mom, Teri, who was Brooke's manager at the time. "It was a transition that I needed," she explained.
"I wasn't strong enough to separate from my mother on my own. I kept falling back in."
In a prior interview with People, she revealed that her therapist "to this day" tells her: "I will always be thankful to Andre because he helped you separate from your mother lovingly."
While she has some fond memories now, in her 2014 memoir, There Was a Little Girl, Brooke admitted she and Andre saw very little of each other following their nuptials.
"It hit me all of a sudden – I knew I had made a mistake. For the next two years, we saw very little of each other. I was working on my show, Suddenly Susan, and he was playing at various tournaments," she explained.
"He alienated me when he lost and was on to the next tournament after he won. We were drifting apart," she added.
Brooke also discussed the demise of their marriage, sharing her shock over Andre's crystal meth addiction, which he had been hiding from her.
"He explained to me that for the first whole part of our relationship, he had been addicted to crystal meth," she wrote. Brooke added that Andre had no interest in attending couples counseling with her and didn't appear to want her support.
"I was the one who had supported him unconditionally when he told me (after we started dating) that he was basically bald and had been wearing hairpieces most of his adult life. Why would this have been any different? I would have been his biggest advocate and supporter," she added.
As for the state of Brooke and Andre's relationship today, she admitted in her documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields: "I've never reconnected with him.
Following their split, Brooke married writer and producer, Chris Henchy, in 2001. They share daughters Rowan Francis, 20, and Grier Hammond, 17.
"He makes me laugh," she told AARP of Henchy.
"I think I always knew that I needed solid and normal. And he's a very, very good dad. He goes to every basketball game, every volleyball game. And the kids love being around him too."
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