Through singing, I met my second husband, Jonathan, who is a professional musician. He transformed our lives and relieved me of much of the strain that I had been carrying for so long.

My philosophy is that while there's life, there's hope. It's as simple as that.

Stephen could be highly critical of people other than his closest relatives... He considered my friends to be easy victims and had no compunction in monopolizing the conversation at parties with his controversial opinions.

We would look up at the night sky together, and although Stephen wasn't actually very good at detecting constellations, he would tell me about the expanding universe and the possibility of it contracting again and describe a star collapsing in on itself to form a black hole in a way that was quite easy to understand.

Typically my ideas come to me in the most inane ways possible. I had the initial idea for 'Quantum Conundrum' while I was walking down the street to get breakfast. People are like, 'Whoa, what's your inspiration, is it something amazing?' No, I was just really hungry.

When you believe in your dream and your vision, then it begins to attract its own resources. No one was born to be a failure.

My biggest motivation is knowing what it feels like to win medals and thinking that I want that feeling again. It was incredible to succeed in Beijing and come home to your whole country behind you but, importantly, all your family and friends.

I dream crazy vivid dreams. Like, entire movies. And sometimes I write songs about them.