RD: The idea is terrifying, obviously because I am still fragile-the hurt of a bad experience. And now that I'm single and famous. There's a combination!

TVG: Has anyone famous asked you out?

RD: No. Maybe it's the angel thing. Maybe that's intimidating. Maybe you could put a little P.S. at the end of the article: "If you're interested, call this number." But I'll tell you: If there is anybody out there for me, he's got to love my kid.

TVG: With your Irish Catholic background and your fame, it must have been difficult for you to leave your marriage.

RD: I don't think that I can put a finger on the date when I did, but I do remember being in the arms of Della and Della saying to me: "You know honey, it doesn't have to be this hard. It shouldn't have to be this hard." Any time I felt the need for a wee cry, there is no place safer in the whole world than the arms of Della Reese. So Mama was there helping me through it.

TVG: Mama?

RD: I've been looking for my mother all my life [Downey's mother, Maureen, died when she was 10], and I found her in Della Reese. She is such an earth mother. Whatever cast us together was extraordinary. This big, beautiful, tough black woman and this little Irish woman. What you see on-screen is echoed off-screen a hundredfold.

TVG: What was her best advice?

RD: I guess that "This too shall pass. Keep your eye on the future. And weather the storm." When the tabloids got hold
of [the divorce], it got so distorted. She was instrumental in reminding me to never mind.

TVG: Let's clear up those reports. There is an impression that you deserted your husband when he was being hospitalized for depression.

RD: What needs to be clear is that you can't fix somebody else. They have to fix themselves first. And I tried for a long time within my marriage to make it work and make it better. And it finally got to the place where I felt in order to save myself and my daughter, that I had to remove myself from the marriage. I made it clear to him that the marriage was over. Once I ended the marriage, my husband went for help. And I supported his healing. I paid for the clinic.