Mum's the word for Charlotte Dawson

Charlotte Dawson. Photo / Getty Images

TV celebrity Charlotte Dawson wants to do an Angelina Jolie and adopt a baby.

The 44-year-old Kiwi, who returned to Australia four years ago to host Australia's Next Top Model, says she found out a few years ago she wasn't able to have children.

"I'd like to adopt but, as an adopted child, out of personal experience, I would want to have a partner to share a child with," she told Sydney newspaper, the Sunday Telegraph.

Dawson, who appeared in The Bachelor and How's Life in New Zealand, says she would love to be a mum.

Oscar-winning actress Jolie is perhaps the most famous mum in the world - she and partner Brad Pitt have three biological kids and three adopted children.

In a candid interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Dawson also talks about her battle with depression, her failed marriage to Olympic swimmer Scott Miller, and her experimentation with Botox.

"I've had really big ups and downs and I've had to confront demons, and it just makes you stronger," Dawson says.

Her new-found strength coincides with landing her first modelling job in more than a decade.

She will shoot a campaign for fashion label Howard Showers and will also be part of the designing process.

"Thank God they've got Botox; thank God they've got airbrushing; thank God they've got fabulous lighting because I don't know if I'm going to be able to pull it off," says Dawson, who has undergone several plastic surgery procedures, including breast implants and a "tweak here and there".

With her marriage over, Dawson moved home to New Zealand eight years ago.

She says it has been tough to get her life back on track.

"I'd had a really ugly marriage breakdown and, as a result of that and some of the press that had come out, I was unemployable and I was completely broke so I had to start from scratch," she explains.

Dawson relocated to Sydney four years ago after becoming a judge on Australia's Next Top Model. She leveraged her position on the show to become one of Australia's most recognisable television personalities but, despite her success, she admits having battled depression.

"Sometimes I need to go on medication," she says. "I can tell if I'm dangerously close to going into a space where I'm not going to be able to get out of bed."