Mad Men actress January Jones has been called nearly every name in the book.

She's been portrayed in the celebrity press as a seductress. She's been linked to directors Matthew Vaughn and Noah Miller, whose films she's appeared in, and accused of temporarily derailing the relationship of Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus. Gawker editor Brian Moylan once even called her "a human ice luge."

However, Jones insisted she wouldn't indulgence the media's inquiries into her love life.

"I'm not trying to sell myself," she told The New York Times, adding, "I wouldn't know how."

The sentiment extends to the unrevealed identity of the father of her 20-month-old son Xander; rumors were abound during the actress' pregnancy, but Jones will not indulgence the press on this subject either.

"That's my son's business," Jones said. "It's not the public's business. Jack Nicholson once told me: 'You should never give your personal life away, otherwise people will pick you apart. They'll never believe in your character.' "

Besides, she added, "Women should have lots of secrets. It's our right to have secrets. Otherwise, what would we write in our memoirs?"

Jones is used to being a controversial figure through her television character Betty Francis (formerly Draper), who's proven a very polarizing figure over the show's six seasons. Viewers dish out weekly vitriol toward her, even in her rare recent appearances.

"That was the fear for me, that we'd be in the third season, and you'd hate the character," Jones said.

Jones sees her character with a touch of empathy. "She is really searching for something, but doesn't know herself well enough to know what might make her happy," she said. "She is a little girl, an orphan. She has a childlike emotional response to things. You have to treat that very, very tenderly."

Jones even hopes that Betty, to some degree, remains her dour, perpetually upset, self.

"God forbid Betty becomes very happy," she said. "Because then I'll be bored stiff."

Tags: January Jones Mad Men