Kristin Chenoweth will "never forget" what her adoptive brother said to her one Christmas when they were growing up.

The 55-year-old Broadway star was adopted by Junie and Jerry Chenoweth when she was just five days old and recalled that in her pre-teen years, her brother Mark had told her that he had checked to make sure that no one could take her away from the family.

She told Parade magazine: "My brother, I was adopted and he was very protective of that. And for Christmas, he said, he's five years older than me, he said, I just want you to know, I've checked, I've done the due diligence and nobody can ever take you away. And that was the best gift.

"From a person that was, you know, 16 telling me that it was very, very, very sweet. I'll never forget it."

Meanwhile, the 'Schmigadoon!' star - who is best known for having originated the role of Glinda in the smash-hit musical 'Wicked' when it opened in 2003 - tied the knot with Josh Bryant, 41, earlier this year and revealed that their first Christmas as husband and wife will be spent with her family in Oklahoma even though she is usually performing around the holiday season.

She said: "You know, we're both entertainers, and the holidays is when we usually work, but this year we're going to spend it with our families. So Arkansas at Thanksgiving and Oklahoma at Christmas. And that's different for us because we're always working. And and I'm glad because right now and I think a lot of the world feels this way, we want to be around those that we love the most and that love us."