LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Kirsten Dunst, who co-starred in the "Spider-Man" movies, says she checked into rehab earlier this year because she was suffering from depression, not battling drugs or alcohol.

In an interview with E! Online, the 26-year-old actress said she went to the Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Utah -- which has also hosted Lindsay Lohan and Eva Mendes -- after months of feeling low.

"It was a good six months before I decided to go away," said Dunst, a regular on the Los Angeles party scene who reportedly told a British magazine last year that "the world would be a better place" if everyone smoked marijuana.

"I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself," Dunst added in the E! Online interview "I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too."

Dunst said she had decided to go public with her depression to highlight the struggle faced by so many other successful woman and also to dispel rumors of chronic drug and alcohol abuse.

"There's been a lot of misrepresentation about what is going on in my life, and it's been very painful for my friends and family," she told E! Online.

"Everyone feels like they have to defend me. They hear the rumors, and it puts them in a defensive position. Now that I'm feeling stronger, I was prepared to say something."

Dunst rose to fame as a child actress in films such as "Interview With the Vampire," and recently played the title role in director Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette."

She is currently shooting her new film "All Good Things" with Ryan Gosling in New York.

Source: Reuters/Nielsen