FOX411 QA: Linda Evans 'Wanted to Die' When Husband Left Her for 15-Year-Old Bo Derek

Linda Evans, who will be forever remembered as Krystle Carrington from "Dynasty," has penned a memoir called "Recipes for Life." It turns out the blonde stunner is quite adept behind a stove and loves to entertain. Evans, who just turned 69, also seems like one of the nicest persons on the planet. After all, she stayed friends with her ex, John Derek, even after he dumped her for a then 15-year-old named Mary Cathleen Collins, who later became known as Bo Derek.

FOX411: So who knew Krystle was a whiz in the kitchen?

Linda Evans: I’m a lover of food and I look to cook. My favorite food to cook is the dish that the person in front of me wants to eat. That’s how it works!

FOX411: Did you have a culinary inspiration?

Evans: Julia Child, ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ was the first cookbook I ever got. When I could make a hollandaise sauce and could put it on things I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It was like the greatest moment of all. To this day I stick it on everything.

FOX411: So how did you became friends with Bo Derek and Ursula Andress, who was John Derek's wife before you?

Evans: You know what? If John Derek had chosen lousy wives I wouldn’t have been their friends, if they weren’t beautiful human beings. It was easy for me to be friends with them because I really liked them. Just because you’re not with someone doesn’t mean that you don’t still love them for why you fell in love with them. It just means it didn’t work. If it doesn’t work, you don’t stay married to them, but you don’t have to get rid of them or the people who were in their lives.

When I realized that Ursula wasn’t coming back to try and get him, but she loved him and wanted to be friends with him, I opened the door and adored her the moment we met. And then I realized that of course she wanted to be in his life, as I wanted to be in his life when we weren’t together. He was a fascinating character, a beautiful man. When you were married to him he made you everything. Few men say you are the moon and the stars and live 24/7 as if you were. He was a man worth keeping in your life.

FOX411: How about Bo?

Evans: I got to know Bo before she became Bo. I helped her learn to act, helped teach her about the business. The fact that John fell in love with her, it’s not as if she had a design for him. In fact they didn’t get along in the beginning. They fought all the time. I liked Bo and when it ended up that John and I were not together I thought for sure John would realize that she was so much younger (Derek was 15) and it wouldn’t work and come back again.

But when I took my mind off the men in my life and put it on me, my career took off and I realized, ‘Why do I want him? I can go and find somebody else that I can fall in love with. Why do I need him to come back?’ And I put my mind on me and my life took off.

FOX411: Weren’t you at all angry or devastated?

Evans: I wanted to die. It was the worst thing that could happen to me in the world, to live without John. He was everything to me. I was mad, I was sad. It was a horrible mixture of things. I went through stages, but what’s really wonderful is when you take your mind off of all of the men and you put all your energy onto you, and you don’t get caught up in the past and "he should of"and "what if "and put your mind on something else than you can have a great life! I’ve learned that over and over.

I’m so grateful that John did that because he wanted me to stop working, period. I never would have had ‘Dynasty’ and the men that I loved after that. The book would have stopped at that point in my life.

FOX411: Did you have any idea how huge ‘Dynasty’ would become?

Evans: I had a feeling when I read the script that it could be like that. To me it was one of the greatest pilots I’d ever read. I adored all the characters. George Peppard was the original Blake Carrington and blessed be life that George and Aaron Spelling and the network decided to disagree and John Forsythe came in and replaced him, and then once they put in the character of Alexis, we just took off.

FOX411: Favorite cat fight?

Evans: I think the lily pond was the best. We shot it for the whole day slugging it out on our knees. It was just fun.

FOX411: What’s your advice to women your age?

Evans: We’ve got a long life to live and don’t count us out. There are 77 million war baby boomers. We’ve got lives ahead of us, things to do. I want us not to think of ending, I want us to think of beginning. I think we should be called the wise ones because that’s what happens as you get older, you get wiser. I wouldn’t give up being wiser for a young face and a tight body for anything. When you get older you let go of needing so many things, your hormones are driving you, you’re free, and you’ve learned life lessons. Let’s see what we can do with our lives. We’re not through yet.