London (ANI): American actress Meg Ryan has revealed how she had hurt Aussie actor Russell Crowe when she walked away from him. Ryan, 46, who had been married to actor Dennis Quaid, revealed that she had not been ready for a serious relationship with Crowe after she found out that her then hubby was having an affair.

"I was a mess - I hurt him (Crowe) too at the end," the Daily Telegraph quoted her as saying about the relationship. "I couldn''t be in another long relationship - it wasn''t the time for that, so I got out," she said.

The actress further stated that Crowe, who she had an affair with in 2000 while co-starring in Proof of Life, was not responsible for the break up of her nine-year marriage to Quaid. "Russell didn''t break up the marriage," she said in an interview with US magazine In Style."Dennis was not faithful to me for a long time and that was very painful. "I found out more about that after I was divorced," she added. Ryan said that she was shocked by the public outrage aimed at her after she ended her union with Quaid, with tabloid stories casting her as the cheater.