Mandy Moore went through "dark times" when she divorced Ryan Adams.

Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore

The 34-year-old singer and actress and Ryan, 43, ended their seven-year marriage in 2016, and has said that their break-up, coupled with the stall of her acting career which took place a few years prior to their split, led to a very "heavy" and "confusing" time for the star.

She said: "When I think back to that particular time period that we're talking about ... It was heavy. It was dark. It was confusing. It was lonely. There was no room for me. There was no room for me to have anything else in my life.

"I put all the emphasis and pressure on, well, I can just dig myself out of this hole by finding fulfilment strictly from a career perspective."

Mandy's career wasn't halted for long though, as she landed her biggest onscreen acting role as Rebecca Pearson in the NBC family drama 'This Is Us' the same year she finalised her divorce from Ryan.

And the actress - who is now engaged to Taylor Goldsmith - says throwing herself into her work allowed "the sun" to come out again.

Speaking to Bustle magazine's latest digital issue, 'Evolution', she said: "Those monumental shifts in your life ... they come at a big cost. It wasn't a decision that I made flippantly. It's no coincidence to me that once I did that hard work, life opened up in a way that I never could have expected. Once I did that, it was like, the sun came back out again. In every respect I felt like, 'Oh, now I'm living the life that I'm supposed to be living.'"

Her comments come after she described her marriage as an "unhealthy situation" in an interview published last month.

She said: "I don't feel guilty for it. I don't fault myself for it.

"When people said, 'I'm sorry,' I was like, 'No. Sorry would have been had I stayed in a very unhealthy situation.' I didn't. I found my way out. And when I did, things opened back up again."