Halle Berry's OSCAR celebrations lasted just 10 days before she discovered her husband Eric Benet was cheating on her.

In a candid chat with pal Oprah Winfrey on American TV yesterday (25MAY04), the actress revealed she was unaware of her now estranged husband's infidelity and subsequent sex addiction when she was given a Best Actress prize for MONSTER'S BALL.

And, when the story came out about Berry's romance with an ex 10 days later in American newspaper the STAR, Berry was ready to sue rather than face facts.

She told Oprah, "I was on the top of the world - career accomplishment, I had a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter. I thought this must be what having it all is. And 10 days after that, this article came out.

"When I got the call I didn't even ask him if it were true. I said, 'I'm gonna sue this magazine, I have had it. I'm gonna spend all my money and I'm gonna own Star magazine.

"About a week later, he finally saw that I was in sue mode and he said, 'I need to tell you something - that article is true.'

"It's heartbreaking because I had a perfect marriage. This is one of the kindest men I think I've ever known on many levels."

Benet flew to London to visit his wife on the set of James Bond film DIE ANOTHER DAY, and it was then Berry realised there was more than one other woman - and she suffered an emotional breakdown.

She recalled, "We talked about this one woman and I just knew that something wasn't right, that wasn't it. My instinct just said there's more, because once he got that off his shoulder he still seemed sick and he still seemed despondent.

"The next two weeks of my life, he stayed there and this vomiting happened, and I found out there was woman after woman after woman, and then I realised he had a sickness.

"I had an emotional breakdown. My bay window looked real good, and I thought I was going to go straight through it."

26/05/2004 09:18