In the ’70s she brought a comic-book superheroine to life on the TV screen; today Lynda Carter is talking publicly about her real-life battle with a modern-day monster: alcoholism.

"I begged God in heaven to help me figure this out," the 56-year-old TV icon told TV’s "The Insider."

Carter, well-known for her role as Wonder Woman, a figure of strength, beauty and courage, said that after a roller-coaster-like struggle with the disease, she finally gave up drinking altogether when her husband, lawyer Robert Altman, pleaded with her to stop.

Carter said she has been sober for nearly ten years. Along with her husband, she also thanks her two children, Jamie, 20, and Jessica, 17, for pushing her to get help.

Research shows that in the U.S. fewer women than men drink. However, the same study found that female alcoholics have death rates 50 to 100 percent higher than those of male alcoholics, including deaths from suicides, alcohol-related accidents, heart disease and stroke, and liver cirrhosis, according to research done in a collaboration between two components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): the Office of Research on Women’s Health, Office of the Director, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.