AceShowbiz - "Clueless" star Stacey Dash has blamed a broken relationship with her late father for her multiple marriages, insisting she only feels secure with a man by her side. The actress, 44, has been engaged six times and is currently in the process of divorcing her third husband Emmanuel Xuereb, who she wed in 2007.

Dash admits she used to rely on compliments from her lovers to settle her insecurities and she's convinced her need to be "defined" by a man stems from her father's absence from her childhood. But the star refuses to hold a grudge against her late dad because he was a drug addict.

She says, "My father was a beautiful, loving, kind man who was ill. He had an addiction and the addiction won... Drugs are just a beast. I knew he loved me. I knew he loved me very much, he just couldn't beat it (drug addiction)."

Dash, who has recently been linked romantically to Jamie Foxx, insists she has learned to be more independent and confident as a single mother after spending years jumping from one relationship to the next. She adds, "It's the first time I've been out there (on the dating scene). Since I was 17 I've never been single. I felt like I needed a man to define me, and I'm finally at a stage in my life where I want to define myself and I'm so happy."

"I realize that I don't feel beautiful if a man isn't telling me I'm beautiful, and there's something wrong with that. So now I realize that I don't need a man to tell me that, I feel beautiful."

Dash has a 19-year-old son, Austin, from her relationship with singer Christopher Williams, and a daughter, Lola, six, from her first marriage to Brian Lovell.