I'm a huge supporter of the military. I think they do an incredible job. So when I get invited to go out and sing for them, some of the best moments of my life.

With 'Believe' bringing really big success for me outside of the U.K. for the first time, it meant I have been touring around the world and that led to a gap from the studio. I really feel like the gap has done me the world of good. Throughout that time I was able to collect songs that I really loved.

I'm a Cancerian, the typical crab with the tough outer shell and the soft bit in the middle. I don't think I'll ever come to terms with people being unnecessarily nasty, but I can take it if someone doesn't like my music - I'm not everyone's cup of tea.

I've been lucky that I've performed with a lot of the classical people I've wanted to work with so I'd like to do something that people didn't see coming. Like Madonna, or being Welsh - the Tom Jones thing. Or somebody suggested N-Dubz - that would be brilliant!

My music appeals in America. There is less of the purist criticism I get here. And to be a hit in the U.S... what singer doesn't have that dream?

I sing a mixture of everything from opera, folk music, Broadway. It's a mix of things.

When I did 'Dancing with the Stars' I did lose an awful lot of weight and I think at the time everybody was sort of alarmed by it. You can eat anything and it is still dropping off you when you are doing that amount of exercise.

If you love somebody, you love them. My parents had a 25-year age gap between them and my mum was the breadwinner, my dad the house husband. I'm a strong believer that a good relationship can work, whatever the situation.

I think maybe because of the kind of music I sing, people want to believe you're a diva. They can't believe after eight years, and eight albums, you're still relatively sane. I feel like they almost want me to throw something at somebody.

My idol was Marilyn Monroe, who was a size 16, I think, and curvy in all the right places. I will never be stick thin. I remember a shoot where I had to get into these tiny hot pants, and I thought, 'God, I wish I hadn't eaten.'

I want to have kids. I want to get married. That is still very important to me.

2012 was the year I saw Twitter as a negative. More people need to realise that not everything they read is true and that Internet trolls are a real problem.

Oh, stuff the critics. I don't care. Too many people are snooty about classical. Look, I wasn't brought up in a home where we listened to classical music. It was a singing teacher that thought it would be best for my voice. Then I moved into crossover. And if that makes the music accessible to more people, then great.

I can't leave the studio until everything is as it should be. And I can't put a record out unless I am completely happy with it. I never want to be at a signing and hear my album playing and think, 'Oh no, I could have done that top note better.'

Yes. I do about 70 shows a year, in the past year I've been to Italy, Australia, Japan, China, just about everywhere. I do it because I love singing. The money is a bonus.

People perceive opera and classical as elitist - I disagree. I've always tried to mix the two, make it more accessible.

I have a long fuse.

The diva tag just won't go away. I think that's because people want me to be like that. It makes it more interesting if I have thrown a phone at somebody or a water bottle. Sadly that's just not me.

I really see myself as a homegirl. Wales is my first home. London is my second home - I've been there 14 years now.

After doing 'Doctor Who,' I'm open-minded to doing more acting. Part of the reason you do a show like this is because it creates other opportunities you haven't had before.

I have such happy memories of performing in a choir and I don't think I'd have got where I am today without all that experience. So my advice to young singers is to either join your school or church's choir or find one in your local area. Choral music at any level teaches you so much about musicianship and blending your voice.

I am a perfectionist.

You learn your lessons from the mistakes you make, not the things you achieve.

I love coming back to Neath - this is home and always will be.

I was such a geek in school.

I'm not naturally a person that wants to exercise, but I find running is something I can do wherever I am in the world.

I do follow a version of the Dukan diet, but I don't follow it to the extreme so a lot of fish and vegetables. If I want chocolate I'll let myself have a bit of chocolate in moderation.

Beatbullying's 'The Big March 2012' is such a brilliant campaign and I am very proud to be a part of it. I have been a victim of cyber bullying myself and I know firsthand just how hurtful it can be. People think that they can hide behind computers and send nasty and hurtful comments to people, and this is wrong.

At the weekend, one of the paparazzi left their lunch box filled with half-eaten pasta salad on my doorstep: it was like a little warning, you know? 'We have been here.'

I've only ever wanted to be a singer; I never wanted to be famous.

I would absolutely, definitely never sell my wedding pictures to a magazine. I'd like it to be a special day, not a photo shoot. And once you've done that, your marriage becomes everybody else's business.