I won't take cash from Evans split, says Piper

The Doctor Who star, who was 18 when she married Evans, then 34, in Las Vegas five years ago, hit out at people who gain money in divorce settlements, saying: "I'm not taking a penny from him. I think that's disgusting."

The pair split three years after their wedding but have remained friends.

Piper, 23, tells the Radio Times magazine that she felt suicidal when she was a teenage pop star. She says: "My eyes were vague and dead, and my mouth was smiling without feeling, in a false pose I'd become accustomed to."

She adds: "I had a very dark moment at 16 when I didn't want to be here anymore, but I did nothing about it, thank God."

The actress, who is about to quit her role as the Doctor's assistant, Rose, in the hit BBC One series, says she was "stroppy" and "drinking too much" as a teenage pop star.

She says she was left with little cash despite her number one hits, telling the magazine: "I was a little girl from Swindon, but managers and others work you to death, and you become exhausted and bitter.

"I was young, green and taken advantage of. There was a massive financial rip-off, and although I was working twice as hard as I am now, I was left with hardly any money."

She admits trying drugs, saying: "I tried all those things, but it never became a problem. I was so green and that's what saved me - otherwise I may have got into it more because everyone else was and it seemed like fun.

"I had my head in the clouds, was mad, neurotic and self- destructive, a very different character to the one you see today."

The star, who enjoyed a two-year honeymoon with Evans, says she now wants to go backpacking to India and Africa.