On her breakup with Joel Madden:

"Joel was my boyfriend for two years and I loved himâ€"he was a very important part of my life. All that stuff about the age difference between us being the reason we broke up is just not true; I never felt the age difference.

Breaking up was just something that I felt needed to happen between us. People thought we were an unlikely couple, but we really weren't that different. After two months, I didn't even see his tattoos anymore, because that's not who he is.

He used to say, ‘I don't think there are too many people out there who really get you, but I do.' And he did. I could be stupid, silly, funny, or crazy, and he got it.

He gave me a sense of confidence and independence I didn't have before. We e-mail all the time now and are at a really good place."

On getting slim:

"I have the same insecurities about my body that every girl has and I made a conscious choice to get in shape. I've always been a junk food eater, but I started paying more attention to what I put in my body and cut out foods like pizza, chicken fingers, and French fries.

If I knew I'd want dessert one night, I wouldn't have bread that day. If I wanted to eat bread, I wouldn't have dessert. Seeing how well it worked motivated me to keep going, but I hit a period when I got too skinny. I wasn't too obsessed with it, but I did learn that there have to be days when you just don't think about it.'"

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