Charlotte: I'm out of puff...

But Charlotte Church insists she is cleaning up her act, having quit smoking and cut down on booze.

The classical singer-turned-pop star gave up cigarettes in January and is encouraging others to do the same on No Smoking Day today.

She said: 'I smoked about 20 or 25 a day and I'd tried to give up a couple of times before, but only lasted half a day. In the past four or five months before I gave up, it was affecting my voice, my breathing control, my tone and I thought: "What am I doing here?"

'Now I've stopped it's got so much better. The first two weeks were tough and the first month I still really missed it. But I feel so much healthier now.'

Her only lapse was on her birthday last month, when she smoked two cigarettes - but felt so ill she vowed not to repeat it. Church, 20, said she took up smoking at 16 'probably because I was bored'. 'I still find it hard to drink and not smoke,' she added.

'When I go out I have to hold a cigarette, I'm so used to having it in my hand. But I don't light it. I won't be drinking so much anymore, either.'

She denied her boyfriend, Wales rugby star Gavin Henson, had put pressure on her but said: 'He was really happy when I did give up.'