Hello sailor: Cheryl Cole shows off stunning new look as she reveals she trusts her mum and dogs - but not footballer husband Ashley

she has always staunchly refused to discuss rumours that her husband had an affair.

But Cheryl Cole yesterday aimed a thinly veiled dig at him by revealing the only people she trusts are her mother and her dogs.

The X Factor judge said her scepticism was a means of self-protection and said she did not believe marriages were meant to be perfect

Nautical but nice: Cheryl Cole shows off her legs in an interview for Elle magazine where she insists she was not ‘stupid’ to have stuck by her husband Ashley Cole

‘I think marriages are something you have to work at,’ she said. ‘Marriages are not rose-petalled paths that you skip down, they were never intended to be.

‘It's not supposed to be easy, it's not supposed to be perfect.’

Mrs Cole, 26, confessed she found it very difficult to trust people - including her footballer husband Ashley.

‘I don't trust anybody,’ she revealed in an exclusive interview with Elle magazine.

Asked whether there was really no one in her life that she trusted, she said: ‘Me Mam. And me Dad. They're me parents. But you always hold that 20 per cent back for yourself.’

Family girl: Cheryl can't wait to have children

She added: ‘I think it's key. I think it's key for your own sanity. You've got to protect yourself.’

‘I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t trust anybody in my life except my mother and my dogs, ’she said in a separate interview with the Sunday Times Magazine.

Mrs Cole, who rose to fame in pop band Girls Aloud, married England and Chelsea footballer Ashley in July 2006.

Her white satin dress and horse-drawn carriage made their nuptials look like a wedding most couples can only dream of.

But their marital bliss was shaken in January last year when newspaper reports claimed Ashley, now 28, has been unfaithful to her.

Hairdresser Aimee Walton and Scottish model Brooke Healy both claimed the footballer slept with them behind his wife’s back.

Realist: Cheryl claims the whole concept of a dream marriage is incorrect

At first Mrs Cole removed her wedding ring, but she later reconciled with her husband.

The brunette singer, who posed in a black leotard and sailor’s hat for Elle, said the whole concept of a dream marriage was not correct.

‘That's why it's called a fairy tale isn't it? It's not real,’ she said.

Love is real and the feelings of love are real. But the thought that everything is going to be rosy and there's never going to obstacles that come in your way, that there is never going to be any testing in life, I'd hate that.

‘I want to experience life. I want to experience the bad to know what the good is.’

She insisted she was not ‘stupid’ to have stuck by her husband and described him as a ‘nice guy’.

‘I know from a perspective how it looks but it's not like that. And I'm not a stupid girl,’ she said.

‘I'm not one of those girls who can't see things for what they are. I've been out with idiots in the past. Ashley's such a nice guy. I still get the butterflies. Even when he rings my phone I get that thing.’

She added: ‘I can't wait to have children. Even if all this went tomorrow and I just had my family and my kids and my husband and my parents, I'm happy.’

Mrs Cole was just another unknown wannabe star when she auditioned for reality show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002.

She was the first person to be chosen for pop band Girls Aloud on the programme and the group have gone on to have 20 UK top ten singles.

Her fame soared to even greater heights last year when Simon Cowell chose her to replace Sharon Osbourne on reality show the X Factor.

The singer’s debut solo album, entitled Three Words, is being released later this month.

‘I can catch Ashley playing the songs on his iPod’, she said. ‘It's quite sweet really'