Charlotte Church is "not a millionaire" anymore

She told Closer magazine: "I am not a millionaire anymore. What mattered to me when I bought The Spinney is it was absolutely beautiful and close to the forest and it was a big mansion house.

"We had a school there for a bit and a studio. When it is used by the community, it makes sense, but when it is not used, it doesn't. We want to be in the mainframe and be involved in life and what it feels like.

"I was very fairy-tale-like and then it gets into this dark, twisted fairy tale.

"When I think back on it now, the path I am on is very interesting in the way I reflect rather than the way I look at what happened to me."

Charlotte - who in recent years established a wellness retreat for women and started The Arwen Project, a "rural, educational, environmental project in Wales, offering experiential learning for mainly young people" - admitted she was a teenager when she first wanted to step away from the public eye because she didn't enjoy it, but her father forced her to keep going, though she will always be grateful for the experiences she had.

She said: "When I made money, I did say to my dad when I was 14, 'I am not sure about this showbiz stuff. I am really not having a good time' and he was like, 'Just stick at it as we don't get these opportunities'.

"I did get to a stage in my teenage years, about 16 or 17, when I was like, 'I don't know if I can sing this s** t anymore', but going around the world and singing in the biggest concert halls was phenomenal and I will be grateful for that experience.

"It's the biggest tool for healing and the biggest tool we have for togetherness."

But after a long time away from music, the 38-year-old star - who has Ruby, 16, and Dexter, 15, with ex-husband Gavin Henson and Frida, three with husband Jonathan Powell - has returned to her classical roots.

She said: "Now I am able to do things that I am passionate about.

"I have this retreat in mid Wales and it is lush. It's just the way my brain works, thinking about society and thinking about utopian futures and what the world needs.

"I feel deep at the core of my purpose, it is about healing and it always has been singing classical songs. People felt soothed by that. It is a deep part of my purpose."