Cheryl Fernandez-Versini thinks men ''don't understand'' women.

The 'Only Human' hitmaker has, up until recently, always had a team of women around her because she finds them ''empowering''.

She said: ''Up until recently, every single person on my team was female. I was surrounded by females and I found it very empowering.

''It's only us who know how each other feels. Men don't understand it.''

But despite her girl power stance, the 31-year-old singer had no problems gushing about her marriage to Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini, who she wed in a secret ceremony last July.

She said: ''I'm not an 18-year-old, I'm a 31-year-old woman and I know what I'm doing. He makes me happy, but he's not the reason. I was happy beforehand - and if I hadn't been happy, I wouldn't have been open to the relationship.''

Talking about her privacy, she added to the Daily Star on Sunday's TV Extra magazine: ''I don't usually discuss my private life... My privacy is very intentional. There was no escape - I was stuck in that glare, in that bubble. It's not healthy for anybody. I had no life. I was kept under surveillance. It was aggressive, it was dangerous and it was inhumane.''