Helena Bonham Carter went through "massive grief" when she split from Tim Burton.
Helena Bonham Carter
The 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' actress separated from the director - with whom she has children Billy, 12, and Nell, eight - in 2014 after 13 years together and the shift in her personal life meant "everything" about her changed.
She said: "You go through massive grief -- it is a death of a relationship, so it's utterly bewildering. Your identity, everything, changes."
The 49-year-old star admitted she wanted to put a "handle with care" sign on herself following the break-up and thinks it is fine to show emotion and admit to being "fragile" following a life-altering event.
She told the new issue of Britain's Harper's Bazaar magazine: "Everyone always says you have to be strong and have a stiff upper lip, but it's OK to be fragile."
Helena and Tim, 57, met when he cast her in 'Planet of the Apes' in 2001 and went on to work on a string of movies together, including 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street', 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Dark Shadows'.
Despite no longer being together, the 'Harry Potter' actress insists she and the director still get on well and the separation in their personal life could be a good thing for their professional relationship.
She said: "We really do get on, so that's good. I understand him very well and he understands me.
"It might be easier to work together without being together any more. He always only cast me with great embarrassment."
While Helena is open to finding love again in the future, she is in no rush to settle down as she is currently finding it "liberating" being on her own.
She said: "I feel very self-sufficient at the moment. I'm just going to work out who I am on my own and it's quite liberating.
"I'm not in a hurry -- I've never been someone who needs to be necessarily half of something. And I have my children, which is the most important thing."
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