Brooke Shields opens up on failed marriage to Andre Agassi

Brooke Shields has opened up on her failed marriage to Andre Agassi.

The actress explained she felt a sense of relief when she and Andre were together because his success at tennis made him a bigger celebrity – giving her a break from public attention.

"With Andre, it also felt good to feel smaller than another, because he was so famous and number one in the world," Brooke, 58, told AARP Magazine of their marriage between 1997 and 1999.

"Everywhere we went, he had tons of bodyguards. I could sit back because it wasn’t my world. He was the first one out of the car when we arrived at events. It was a real kind of respite."

Brooke, whose new Netflix movie Mother of the Bride is released in May, also explained that marrying Andre enabled her to separate herself from her overbearing mother Teri – who was also her manager.

"It was a transition that I needed," she explained. "I wasn’t strong enough to separate from my mother on my own. I kept falling back in."

Brooke has been married to screenwriter and producer Chris Henchy since 2001. The couple shares two daughters, Rowan Francis, 20, and Grier Hammond, 17.

"He makes me laugh. I think I always knew that I needed solid and normal," Brooke said. "And he’s a very, very good dad. He goes to every basketball game, every volleyball game. And the kids love being around him too."