United Kingdom, April 11 -- Louise Redknapp lost a "massive chunk of confidence" when she stopped performing.

The 50-year-old pop star - who was previously married to footballer Jamie Redknapp and has sons Charley, 20, 15-year-old Beau with him - shot to fame as part of Eternal in the 1990s, and took time out of the spotlight in the years that followed but felt a sense of "frustration" when others seemed unable to recognise what it all "really means" to her.

She told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: "I feel like when you've come from being in a pop band years ago and then you've come through that whole FHM era, there is a perception of you as a woman, as an artist, as a person. And these people have never met me.

"My biggest frustra...