Cheryl Cole believes she would have been a mother by now if she hadn't have released a solo album.

The 'Call My Name' singer recorded her debut LP '3 Words' in 2009 while she was on a break from her band Girls Aloud but she insists she only did it because her friend and manager will.i.am convinced her to work alone.

Instead, the 28-year-old beauty said she would have been happy to use that time to start a family with then-husband Ashley Cole, who she divorced in 2010 amid claims he cheated on her.

She said: ''It was actually him that convinced me to do a solo record. I never would have done a solo record without him. At the time, I would have had a family. At the time I was still married! But it was actually Will saying to us, 'You know you're going to do a solo record, right?', and I was saying, 'I don't want to, not yet'.

''And he was like, 'I think you should. You need to'. He said, 'I'm excited, I want to be involved with it'. So he was involved from day one. I recorded my first ever solo song ['Heartbreaker'] with Will.''

Cheryl says the Black Eyed Peas star was the only one who believed she could do a solo album as her record label was a bit ''dubious''.

She told Pop Justice: ''I think the label were a bit dubious at the time when Will suggested it.

''I think they were like, 'Statistically it doesn't work'. I was married, I was sorted! It was Will who said, 'Come in and write'. And the first thing I wrote was 'Heaven'.''