The Ugly Betty actress ended her five-year-long marriage to American football star Chris Howard in 2006, and has often been linked to the famous rapper and other leading men.

And she admits the rumour mill has helped her dating life.

She says, "Ludacris and Hill Harper are two of my closest male friends, and people always said we were all dating. It's like they were blocking for me. I could date the people I wanted to date and no one ever knew because they thought I was, as somebody said, 'sucking face' with Hill Harper."