It was almost six years ago, but Winona Ryder [Images]'s finally broken her silence.

The story was crazy. Winona, two-time Oscar nominee and former girlfriend to Johnny Depp [Images], was caught shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on December 12, 2001.

And no stray bottle of perfume, this. Ryder ripped off security tags from $4,760 worth of clothes and accessories before stuffing them into her bags, Reuters reported. She was convicted of grand theft and let off after paying $20,000 in bail.

Now, Ryder tells all in the August issue of Vogue magazine, talking about her guilt, the incident and the aftermath.

'The attention was what was embarrassing,' reveals Ryder, dismayed that for one day the news of her arrest topped stories on the supposed capture of Osama bin Laden.

'I didn't have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn't hurt anyone,' Ryder told the magazine. 'Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience.

'No one ever got angry with me,' She said about her family's reaction. 'Concerned, yes, but not concerned with a drug problem or anything. Because after that night I pretty much didn't ever... If you are ever arrested, you can't ever do that again.'

Ryder, 35, has three movies coming out in 2007 -- The Ten, Sex and Death 101 and The Last Word -- following a long gap from Hollywood.

Photograph: Getty Images