Danielle Spencer ''couldn't'' continue her career while Russell Crowe's flourished.

The 51-year-old singer-and-actress - who split from the 'Gladiator' star in 2012 after nine years of marriage - didn't want nannies raising their sons Charles, now 16, and Tennyson, 14, so stopped working in order to ''keep the family together''.

Asked if she regrets putting her career on hold, she quipped: ''What a waste of my time! I could have put out ten albums by now, those bloody kids!''

She then seriously added: ''I think because Russell was travelling a lot with work, and we wanted to try and keep the family together and the parents in the same place, I just couldn't [continue my singing and acting career].

''I just thought we can't both be on location and the kids bought up with a nanny.''

The former 'Home and Away' actress also admitted she and Russell - whose divorce wasn't finalised until 2018 - continued holidaying together with their kids for several years after they split.

Danielle has now found love with Adam Long, who she met when she bumped into him on the promenade at Sydney's Rose Bay, but she already had an unexpected connection to the art dealer.

She explained on 'The Kyle and Jackie O Show': ''As they say, you meet somebody when you least expect it and I was literally walking up Rose Bay promenade.

''He had a way in, Russell and I had lived at his ex-mother-in-law's house for about 10 years beforehand.

''I hadn't met him back then. But Russell took his mother-in-law's grandchildren, [Adam's] sons, to the Rabbitohs.... it gave us something to talk about.''

When they met, Adam asked the blonde beauty to go for a coffee with him and she agreed because he ''seemed like a nice, friendly guy''.

She said: ''He was very lovely to talk to, a really smiley person, and I thought this is a nice person to have a chat and a cup of tea with.''