Christina Aguilera: 'I'm dating'

Ending weeks of speculation, pop singer Christina Aguilera has opened up about her new relationship with musician Matthew Rutler, acknowledging, "There is a love there, yes. . . . I'm dating and it's something I haven't had in a really long time."

Speaking publicly for the first time about Rutler, a movie production assistant and also the guitarist for the Bristol, R.I.-based quartet the Nate Mott Band, the Grammy Award-winner told People magazine, "He's the kind of person you could spend hours with on the phone talking to and all of a sudden it's daylight."

She also spoke in the interview about her recent decision to divorce her husband of five years, Jordan Bratman, a music-industry executive. "Things were so unhealthy and unhappy for both Jordan and me, I knew I had to end it," she said, adding, "I really didn't want to hurt Jordan, and I felt torn about splitting our family up." Aguilera, 29, and Bratman, 33, have a son, Max, who turns 3 next month.

"When you're unhappy in your marriage, your children are the ones who suffer," Aguilera said. "That's the last thing I wanted for my son."

Max spent Thanksgiving with his father in Los Angeles, while Aguilera and Rutler, whom she met while he worked as a set assistant on her film "Burlesque," went to New York for the weekend and visited his family in Rhode Island, People said.