She might be a poster girl for boys and girls these days, but Zooey Deschanel has revealed she wasn't always popular - and was once spat on because of how she looked.

In an interview in the May issue of US Marie Claire magazine, the New Girl actress told how she was ridiculed at school for being 'chubby'.

"I still have in me the same awareness when I was 12 and chubby and a girl was spitting in my face,' she said. "I’m the same person.

"I really don't know why she spit at me. I just talked to her. I guess I wasn't allowed to talk to her. I remember I couldn't believe it."

She also admitted that she's happy being single after filing for divorce from her hubby, musician Ben Gibbard, in December.

"Honestly, I’m just going through a divorce, so I don’t really think that’s something I want to get into now," she said. " don’t have time to date. I literally – don’t have time."

And she's in no hurry to become a mum either, revealing it's never been something she's longed for.

"That’s never been my focus. My sister was always very motherly, babysitting and stuff. 'I like kids, and I like being around kids – but it was never an ambition, something, like, I need," she said.

'I like working. That’s what I like doing. I like to work.'

Which is just as well, as her US sitcom New Girl - in which she plays the lead role of teacher Jess Day - has just been commissioned for a second series after the first season became the most successful TV comedy among young viewers in the US.

Read the full interview in the May issue of U.S, Marie Claire from Tuesday 17 April

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