MADONNA - MADONNA KEEN TO LEAVE REBELLIOUS PAST BEHIND

MADONNA is struggling to relinquish her ego entirely as she aims to lead a more altruistic lifestyle.

The VOGUE singer, 45, is a strong follower of the Kabbalah and is keen to "be more liberated" from her ego, even though she admits she has a "long way to go".

The superstar currently wowing audiences with her REINVENTION tour says, "Once you enter the popularity sweepstakes, which you do when you become famous... you enter the world of 'How am I doing? How's my ratings? Where am I in the 50 most beautiful people poll?"

She adds of her past bad behaviour, "The stance of a rebel is 'I don't care what you think'.

"But if it's just for the sake of upsetting the apple cart, you're not really helping people.

"You turn the apple cart over and then what?

"Then everyone's looking at an apple cart that's turned over and they're like, well, now what do I do?"

"I thought I was liberating mankind but, like I said, I wasn't really offering an alternative.

"To a certain extent I was saying 'Look, you know, why do men only get the job of objectifying women in a sexual way? I want to do it too.'

"There was an element of that, but there was also an element of being an exhibitionist and saying 'Look at me.'

"It wasn't that altruistic. I can admit that."

She adds, "I choose to look at myself as a person who's now awake and a person who's now trying to be part of the order, not the chaos, of the world."