Being single is liberating: Monica Belluci

Los Angeles: Actress Monica Bellucci enjoys being single and feels "lucky" to have good health and a family.

Bellucci, who has daughters Deva, 10, and LEonie, five, with ex-husband Vincent Cassel, feels "very alive" and enjoys life on her own, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Asked if being single at 50 is strange, she told Hello! magazine: "No. It feels liberating. The single woman is a free woman and being single does not mean being alone. I feel very alive.

"I'm lucky to be in good health and have two wonderful daughters who fill my life with such joy."

She was 39 when she had her first child and thinks she was right to wait until later in life because she was too "selfish" in her 20s and early 30s to be a parent.

"(Being a parent) has made me so much more happy, more complete, more full. When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I wasn't ready to take on such a responsibility. Maybe that's because I was an only child and that makes you more selfish.

"But as soon as I had Deva, I wanted to have another child. Then I decided I should wait until I had time to understand what it means to be a mother.

"I had my second daughter when I was 45, which is quite lucky for a woman at that age. But it's just been so beautiful to raise my children. It's a miracle," she added.