Josh Duhamel: Oprah ‘almost got me to tear up a little bit’ about Fergie

What's an Oprah Winfrey interview without a few tears? This Sunday, the queen of talk sits down with Fergie and her husband of nearly four years, Josh Duhamel, at her vineyard in Solvang, California, to chat about her past struggles with drugs, her career, and her high-profile marriage. In a preview of OWN's "Oprah's Next Chapter," Winfrey asks the Black Eyed Peas singer about the report that Duhamel cheated on her just nine months into their marriage. Although Fergie seems guarded in the clip, the "Safe Haven" star opens up to omg! that Winfrey nearly had him reaching for a Kleenex.

"She's a good interviewer," admits the actor. "She almost got me to tear up a little bit. Almost." And how did Winfrey do that? "Well, she asked about some of the troubles Fergie and I had in the past and I was pretty candid about how that affected us, how it affected me, and how it ultimately made me a better man and us a stronger couple."

Another thing that made Duhamel a better man is simply aging. With his 40th birthday looming on November 14, he says his 30s were filled with all sorts of achievements, both professional (landing "Las Vegas" and the "Transformers" movies) and personally — marrying Fergie after more than four years of dating. "Overall, I would say the 30s were pretty great," says Duhamel. "I learned a lot, that's for sure. I'm a much better man at 40 than I was at 30." He's also feeling a lot better as he approaches the milestone. "I feel healthier than I have in 15 years. I've been taking good care of myself. Maybe I'm trying to avoid the inevitable. It's a state of mind, and I feel good. I feel younger than 40 that's for sure."

But as he nears 40, he also can't ignore his 20s. Even though the world was not really aware of Duhamel yet, he was a prominent face in the industry of male modeling. In fact, he beat out an also unknown hunk at the 1997 Male Model of the Year contest: Ashton Kutcher. The "Two and a Half Men" star, who went by Chris at the time (his middle name is Ashton), took second place behind Duhamel.

"We joke about that all the time," Duhamel tells omg!. "When I see him, we always have a good laugh about it. We were so into it. We thought we were so cool. It was like a real-life 'Zoolander.' We went two different ways. He like immediately shot to stardom after: he did a big Calvin Klein campaign and 'That '70s Show,' and I struggled for a number of years. But now we laugh about it. It's funny … Every time I see him, it's great. It's not nearly as competitive as it was when we were battling on the runway. I'm actually really happy for him and all his success."

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