HER second marriage broke up, her house burnt down, her father died and her teenage son went to rehab.

You'd expect Marie Osmond to weep on primetime television.

Or faint, as she famously did on the fifth season of US reality series Dancing With The Stars (DWTS), which pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers who compete each week performing the samba, cha cha cha and foxtrot.

Yet, when The New Paper spoke to the 48-year-old singer over the phone, Marie didn't seem down in the dumps at all.

There was something almost surreal about her chirpy tone during the 20-minute interview from Perth, Australia where she and her brothers wrapped up the Australian leg of their 50th anniversary world tour, which will swing into Singapore on 17 Jun.

Marie kept bursting into a loud laugh throughout the interview.

She then explained it was her coping mechanism.

'Tragedy plus time equals humour. You are eventually going to laugh about it.

'My philosophy is you might as well laugh about it now,' she said.

Might As Well Laugh About It Now is also the title of her upcoming book, written after the house fire in 2005 that destroyed 40 years of her show business memories.

She said her journals, records and other memorabilia from her 'vast career' ended up in smoke.

Which is why she wanted to write it all down while she could still remember it.

DANCING & FAINTING

As for her dramatic fainting spell on DWTS, Marie said it was due to the Southern California bush fires that were going on at the time.

She explained that it triggered her asthma, which made her faint and hit her head hard on the floor.

She added cheekily: 'Did I win? I don't remember.'

Well, she came in third, with racecar driver Helio Castroneves taking pole position and the Spice Girls' Melanie Brown clinching the second spot.

However, cynical online critics accused her of faking the faint to gain sympathy votes.

Marie responded sarcastically: 'Oh yeah, I really wanted that knot on my head.'

While she was disarmingly honest about most of her hard times, she was wary on the topic of her 16-year-old son Michael, one of her five adopted children.

She has three other children from her two marriages.

The news that he entered a rehabilitation centre last November came hot on the heels of the demise of her second marriage to Brian Blosil and the death of her 90-year-old father.

She spoke about Michael's drug problem in a roundabout way, saying: 'I am so proud of him. He's doing phenomenally well.

'Children are targets. They are being attacked by drug dealers.'

Marie admitted that he may have some issues about being an adopted child but declined to comment any more about him.

With her appearance on DWTS and all 100 members of the Osmond family appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, it has pushed the veteran pop stars back into the limelight.

DONNY & MARIE

The Osmond brothers were hot as a singing group in the 1970s and 1980s and known for their toothy big grins.

She and her brother Donny also made teenybopper history as one of the most successful brother-sister duos with a hit television variety show, The Donny And Marie Show.

Said Marie proudly: 'We debuted Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the show.'

The Osmonds are celebrating 50 years in show business with a world tour, which is also their farewell concert. VizPro Entertainment and concert promoter Jasper Entertainment are bringing them in for the Singapore leg.

The last time they were here was in 1980, when Marie and Donny performed at the National Stadium.

Marie made a second return to our shores in 1997 when she was part of the cast of the musical, The Sound Of Music.

When asked what she thought about Spears' public mental breakdown, Marie said she felt sorry for her.

'I think it is a shame that it had to be so public,' she said.

She also had something to say over the hue and cry that erupted over Miley Cyrus' sexy photos for Vanity Fair.

She had criticised the 15-year-old Disney star's father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, for leaving his daughter alone during the shoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Marie said: 'When a parent steps out, and you're a little kid and an icon like Annie Leibovitz asks you to do something, what are you doing to do?

'I think parents should always be there no matter what. I was a child star and my mother was there for me for every stage of my life.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Jun 9, 2008.