Hally Berry has disclosed that she lived in a homeless shelter at one point in her life.

The actress, 50, found herself without a roof over her head when her mother declined to lend her money at a time of need.

“That was rough,” the Oscar winner, 50, said of her time as a young actress being homeless and living in a shelter in New York. “I called my mother and asked her to send me some money, and she said no, and that subsequently led to a year of not speaking to her, but that’s probably one of the best things she did for me.”

The Monster Ball actress recalls ringing her mother: “She said, ‘If you want to be there, then you be there. You work it out.’ And I had to work it out.”

Berry eventually showed to her mother and the rest of the world that she had what it takes to succeed in New York. She got a job as a waitress, which led to a job as a bartender, and she was able to leave the shelter. She went on to say, “Giving up was never an option.”

The experience of being at a shelter had definitely made an impact on her, and it had aided her in remaining motivated. “You say I can’t? Watch me,” she recalled thinking. “I’m going to figure this out. And shelter life was part of figuring it out for a minute.”

The actress, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised by her mother, acknowledges that the early years were difficult, but it pushed her to be more competitive.

Despite three unsuccessful marriages, she still has the same spirit of perseverance. In 2016, she divorced her third husband, Olivier Martinez.

She was married to David Justice from 1993 to 1997 and Eric Benet from 2001 to 2005 before her most recent relationship.

Berry is figuring out how to be alone. She went on to say, “I’m learning that I’m fearless. I had so many fears as I went through my third divorce. I was afraid to do that, but I was more afraid of living unhappy. It’s teaching me: Don’t be afraid of what people will think about the choices you make. We have to live for ourselves.”

Halle has two children, eight-year-old Nahla and three-year-old Maceo, and she recently revealed why she posts photographs of them on Instagram with their faces hidden or cropped off. She replied in response to a fan’s comment on the social networking site: “I’ve noticed you have said this several times now, so let me be clear – I’m not at all ashamed of my children. I try to find creative ways to incorporate them into my feed because they are the biggest part of my life, but I also work very hard to keep their identities as private as I can considering they are only children.”

Halle received the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture for her work in Monster’s Ball in 2002.