Halle Berry is Sexiest Woman Alive

The actress said she was pleased to receive the accolade seven months after giving birth to daughter Nuala.

"I don't know exactly what it means, but being 42 and having just had a baby, I think I'll take it," the actress said.

Halle Berry, who thrilled James Bond fans when she emerged from the waves wearing an orange bikini in Die Another Day, joked: "I've been in the business for more than 20 years, and you decide now, at this particular time, that I'm the sexiest woman alive? Come on. I mean, you couldn't go with the Bond girl year?"

The actress said of having sex in her 40s: "I'll tell you this: I've learned my tricks. I know what I like. I do not wait around. I initiate. And I'm not all about frequency. I favour intensity.

"There have been some men in my life who have been wickedly sex and have taught me much about sexual pleasure. There are a few men I should thank, and others I need to forget. But I don't regret. To hell with regret. I like what I am now. I like being a mother. I like my body better since I became a mother. I feel sexier as a result of becoming a mother."

And she said: "Sexiness is about knowing what's sexy to you. To me, spaghetti is sexy, especially when it's served off the tips of a man's fingers. I like that. And I think wine is sexy, just before sex. It relaxes me. But if I want to get a serious groove on - if I want an out-of-body experience - I'm all about the sloe-gin fizz."

The Oscar-winning star also said she found her boyfriend's car sexy "because it's littered with little bits of his life - his golf balls or his chocolate-bar wrappers - and it's ripe with the smells of him. That's the car I most want to ride in."

She dedicated her award to all women "because every woman is a nominee for it any moment... I figure at one moment the sexiest woman alive is a waitress in Abilene, Texas. And in the very next second, it's a woman in the bush of Vanuatu."

Meanwhile, Berry's partner, model Gabriel Aubry, 32, disclosed that the couple are hoping to have another baby. "Yeah, we are working on that," he told Us Weekly, but added: "We have no plans for marriage. We are more married than ever, really."

The full interview is at www.esquire.com

Via telegraph.co.uk