Halle BerryHalle Berry has revealed that she was devastated when her mum refused to help her when she first started acting but realises it was a valuable, character-forming lesson.

She told Reader’s Digest recently that she had to live in a shelter when she first moved to New York at the age of 21 because her mum refused to help her out financially: “A girl had to do what a girl had to do. You can do that when you’re 21 and ambitious.”

“[But] it was devastating because she had never said no to me for anything. I became totally self-sufficient. I vowed never to ask my mother or anybody for anything, ever. And I didn’t.”

“I’m actually grateful she did that, because it taught me how to take care of myself and that I could live through any situation, even if it meant going to a shelter for a small stint, or living within my means, which were meager. I became a person who knows that I will always make my own way.”