Uma Thurman admits she has just gotten over split from Ethan Hawke

Hollywood star Uma Thurman has admitted she has only just got over her split from ex-husband Ethan Hawke - FOUR YEARS after they broke-up.

The 'Kill, Bill' beauty admits that she has been hiding the pain of her divorce and having to "figure out how to be another person".

Amazingly, she says only now does she finally "feel better", adding: "I'm finally getting away from it."

Uma, 37, said a friend had given her the horrible warning of the long-road ahead of her shortly after she split from actor Ethan after eight years together. "When I was first going through my separation, someone said to me, 'It will take you half as long as you were in the relationship before you'll feel better'," Uma told a U.s. magazine. "And I wanted to knock them out cold across the table.

"Because, of course, I was in agony. And the last thing I wanted to think was that I was going to stay that way for a long time.

"But interestingly enough, it is over four years later - we were together eight years - and I finally feel like, cool. I feel better.

"I'm finally getting away from it."

She says part of the pain was just readjusting your own image of yourself and your place in the world. "Truly, with divorce you are one person before, and you have to figure out how to be another person after," she said. "Forget about whether your marriage works. You're losing your family."

Asked if it was difficult to move on, she admitted: "Yes. Very."

She added: "With my divorce, I felt like a refugee from my own life.

"As much a it wasn't satisfying, or people were complaining, we still made a life together. And then, I was outside of it."

Ethan and Uma have two children together, Maya, nine, and Levon, five. Uma admits being a single mum is "deeply challenging - and quite lonely". But she insists: "The beauty outweighs the difficulty."

She also says it radically changes her career choices, having to ignore movies that would take her away from her children.

"I'm not exclusively creatively motivated anymore, she explained. "I'm motivated by what's best or these little people.

"But I hope as a woman in this day and age that it's possible to support your family, emotionally and otherwise, and still have the opportunity to express yourself and have a career.

"And that the kids benefit from that kind of upbringing."

Still, she admits that she wants more children - and has even sought medical advice to make sure she is not too old to have them. "I'd like more children," she said ."I'd love more.

"I asked the doctor, she said there's still time. I still have the sippy cups."

Uma has been telling friends she is madly in love with current boyfriend, financier Arpad 'Arky' Busson.

But she admits finding the right man is tough. "As a single parent, I have to be very, very careful," she sauys of the men she may bring into her family home.

"And it's hard, because I'm not a fortune teller. You don't know what's inside every guy.

"I wish I were a psychic. I'd love to know what's coming."

Asked if she finds people "chronically disappointing", Uma admitted: "Of course do! But I keep coming back for more.

"Hope springs eternal."

She added: "Actually, of any quality, that's the one I'm most grateful for: the willingness to reinjure myself

"Hope trumps experience. So I keep trying. Absolutely."

By Owen Williams, Feb 20 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy