Woman of the moment Cheryl Cole has admitted that lucky husband Ashley Cole is off the hook for his ‘horrendous’ affair a year ago as he is ‘mentally’ immature.

The pop star revealed that she was able to move on from the incident of the footballer’s indiscrepency with hairdresser Aimme Walton, because her hubbie is ‘mentally young for his age’.

Girls Aloud member, Cheryl talked about how upset she was at the time, as she appeared on the front cover of Vogue for the first time. ‘It was horrendous’ the stunner said of the fling, but she is letting her man off after telling,

‘Look, Ashley’s young, and he’s got a young mentality for his age anyway.’It was horrendous,’ she said.

‘He’s learning. He has a beautiful soul, he’s a really nice guy, and I’m not stupid, you know — I’m really not. I know what I’m doing.

‘I’ve had enough knocks to know what the circumstances are, you know, and I’m happy. If other people aren’t, that’s their problem.’

However, it is not easy being married to Ashley, the 26 year old reveals, as she is still trying to ground him and bag more alone time,

‘He’ll agree to go to dinner with me, then someone will call and ask him to do a charity event on the same night — and he’ll say to them, ‘I’m there’. Then he’ll be too afraid to tell me until it’s time to go.’

He does make life difficult for himself, but — annoying as it is — I suppose it’s quite sweet in a man. And quite rare, too.’

Meanwhile, the singer talked about her weight battles as she was starting out in the group and trying to follow Jennifer Aniston’s weight loss plan.

‘In the first year of Girls Aloud, I went up to a 29in waist. I remember crying because I was 9½st when I’m only 5ft 3in’, says Cole.

‘Jennifer Aniston was doing the Atkins diet at the time and I thought I’d give it a try. I remember I ate the same thing — chicken in cream sauce with a couple of carrots — every night for weeks. I felt just horrible, but I was on this mission.’

The star also reveals that she suffered a broken heart in her early twenties and became clinically depressed.

‘I do worry about things, I’m probably going to end up dying with worry. I was clinically depressed once after a bad relationship. We have it in the family.’