Madonna: Men want me thin

She has been vilified for her increasingly gaunt and sinewy appearance. But today Madonna reveals the motivation for the gruelling diet and exercise regime she puts herself through - men.

The 47-year-old singer admitted that, if left to her own devices, she would prefer to be plumper but all the males in her life have preferred to see her taut and toned.

"I wish I were comfortable enough to look zaftig," she says, using the Yiddish term for "pleasingly plump". "But I choose men who like carved-out women, the 'can you run for the bus' kind of guy."

Madonna had a stormy marriage with Sean Penn, 45, before marrying director Guy Ritchie, 37. Last week there were reports highlighting her closeness to 28-year-old Stuart Price, who produced her Confessions On A Dancefloor album.

She tells Elle magazine that the reason she was willing to work on her body to please her partners was a legacy of her childhood, when she struggled to make her father Tony Ciccone proud of her.

"A good part of my life was spent trying to wow him, to get his approval," she recalls.

The mother of two, who had a curvy figure when she shot to fame in the Eighties, is known by her stage dancers as "the bionic body". Her daily routine includes three hours of high-intensity yoga, Pilates, swimming or karate, pumping iron and either running, cycling or horse-riding. She also uses a step machine in her office when she takes telephone calls.

After recent photographs raised fears she had been overdoing it, this disco-inspired image - taken to promote her new single, Sorry, on 20 February - shows Madonna is fit and well.

She reaffirms her dedication to Kabbalah, saying she turned her back on Catholicism because it is not "consoling" and is "all just laws and prohibitions".

She adds: "I hope by the time it's my moment to leave the world physically, I'll have gotten my head around the idea that life is an endless cycle."