OTTAWA?Sandra Bullock owes her soon-to-be ex-husband's former mistress a debt of gratitude for exposing her husband's cheating, the other woman Michelle "Bombshell" McGee told a Canadian broadcaster on Tuesday.

"In a twisted type of way, I guess Sandra should be thankful that I did come forward and let her know that her husband did cheat on her," she said in an interview with CTV's eTalk program to be aired on Tuesday.

Bullock's marriage unraveled just 10 days after the popular 45-year-old scooped a best actress Academy Award for her performance in "The Blind Side," where she plays a housewife who adopts a troubled homeless teenager.

It was the latest in a series of honors for Bullock during Hollywood's awards season, where she repeatedly paid tribute to her husband during acceptance speeches, proudly stating that James "has got my back."

Yet allegations by tattooed stripper McGee that she had been involved in an affair with James for several months left Bullock's seemingly rock-solid five-year marriage in ruins.

Bullock, 45, filed for divorce from her husband in April.

McGee, meanwhile, was recently paid $500 an hour to appear in a television spot for pro-adultery website AshleyMadison.com which is to be aired in Canada and the United States, the company said.

"She was picked to appear in the ad because of her profile in the Jesse James scandal," a spokeswoman told AFP.