The '4 Minutes' singer admitted only her hectic work schedule and world tour helped her through a 'challenging' 12 months which saw her marriage to the British film director end and courts initially block her application to adopt four-year-old Malawian girl Mercy.

She told Rolling Stone magazine: 'It was certainly a challenging year. I may have thrown myself off a building. I think work saved me and I'm very grateful I had work to do.'

Madonna filed for divorce in October 2008, and it was finalised in December.

She was left stunned when after initially accepting her adoption bid for Mercy to join her family – daughter Lourdes, 13, and sons Rocco, nine, and four-year-old David, who she also adopted from Malawi - a court rejected her request in April 2009 because she hadn't been a resident in Malawi for at least 18 months.

She appealed the decision and was granted permission to adopt Mercy in June.

During the period of changes, the star was also performing on her 'Sticky and Sweet' world tour, which began in August 2008 and ran until last month.

Despite getting older, the 51-year-old star has vowed not to tone down her live shows in future as she would get 'bored' if she scaled back her tricky song-and-dance routines.

She said: 'People have told me, 'You could just go out there and play guitar and sing your songs like Paul McCartney' but I'd be bored.

'Most of the joy of shows is the magic of creating them – the theatre. I'm a perfectionist. I like hard work. I like to sweat.'