Mandy's New Life

By ALEXIS CHIU

Update Monday June 15, 2009 01:00 AM EDT Originally posted Monday June 15, 2009 01:00 AM EDT

• Facebook
• Tweet

She toured with the Backstreet Boys as a teen pop star, but Mandy Moore, 25, still gets stage fright. To calm herself down, "I went to see a hypnotist," she confessed at a recent Los Angeles gig. "As I've gotten older, I've gotten more nervous."

Offstage Moore radiates confidence. The singer is "the proudest I've ever been" of her new album, Amanda Leigh, with its folkie ballads and Beach Boyish pop. She's found balance through psychotherapy, calling it "one of the best things I've done for myself." And she's in love with eccentric singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, 34, whom she wed March 10 in Savannah after about a year of dating. Says Moore: "I was lucky to find 'the one' this early in life.'"

"Mandy's the happiest I've ever seen her," says her manager Jon Leshay. "Ryan is unbelievably supportive." Their "quirky" wedding, with Moore in a tea-length dress and Adams in skinny jeans and sneakers, "was everything I hoped for," she says. "It happened in a perfectly ridiculous, beautiful way."

After high-profile romances with tennis ace Andy Roddick and Scrubs' Zach Braff, Moore says married life with Adams (now clean after bouts with alcohol and drug abuse) is "a whole new world." They live in Los Angeles with their dog Joni (for Joni Mitchell), hiking and browsing vintage shops for fun. "My wife, my hero," Adams recently Tweeted while she did charity work in Africa; she playfully calls him "nerd" in her own posts. Naturally music is a "huge theme for us," says Moore, adding they may team up one day. As for a more domestic project, she "definitely" wants kids. Just don't expect her to dial her hypnotist over it. "It will happen when it's supposed to," she says. "There's stuff I want to do first?for me, for us. No rush."