Renée Zellweger has admitted that her brief marriage to Kenny Chesney was “the biggest mistake of my personal life”.

The pair married in May 2005 after dating for four months but Renée filed for an annulment just another four months later, citing “fraud” as the reason for the split.

She recently told Now magazine: “I made the biggest mistake of my personal life. I felt a fool. I wanted to run away and hide. I was going through an intensely private situation. I didn’t want to share it with the world.”

“I was going through huge life changes at the time. I wanted to stop and be a girl for a while.”

“My marriage came during this time and it was desperately important to me. I don’t want anyone to think I didn’t take it seriously.”

But once the whirlwind of their speedy romance died down, the marriage wasn’t what either Renée or Kenny thought it would be: “there was no alternative but to let it go. I don’t believe in hanging on to relationships if they aren’t working. And this wasn’t going to work.”

She was adamant though that their split wouldn’t turn into a bitter public fight like so many celebrity divorces: “I didn’t want to share anything with anyone. We all deal with this kind of thing in our own way. I also didn’t want to become a figure of entertainment to others.”

“The reality of the situation was far more important. It would have rubbed salt in the wound to have entered into any kind of public debate.”

“I’m not alone - and I’m not the first. Someone else always has a view, but the truth is a private matter for yourself to deal with. I didn’t want to take part, unwittingly, in a circus.”