Katy Perry: How It All Went Wrong

Six months after splitting from Russell Brand, Katy Perry joked to Jay Leno on June 21, “I’m awful lonely these days.” Fast-forward to the next night at West Hollywood’s Soho House and she was feeling anything but: Wearing a sparkly white dress, the pop star started out sipping a martini and snacking on guacamole with a girlfriend. As the night heated up, so did Perry’s interest in the other men at the bar as she went on to playfully chat up a group of guys. “She loves to be flirty, sexy,” says a pal. “She likes her freedom, but she wants to have a relationship too.”

Pursuing her own teenage dream of having both the soaring fame and the cozy home life is one of the major topics captured in her new concert film Katy Perry: Part of Me (out July 5), in which the ultra- private singer, 27, finally addresses the demise of her 14-month marriage. Among the revelations? She insinuates that her career, which kept her away for months on end, became a point of contention in her marriage. As Perry describes her perfect partner as someone who “won’t be threatened or have weird motives,” she breaks down onscreen saying, “I started to realize … that fairy tale that I had is not true for me right now.” And though Perry took great pains to find “relationship days” in her breakneck tour schedule to spend time with Brand, 37, in the end, “I did everything it took, but it still failed,” Perry says.

Another source of tension between the couple: Brand wanted to start a brood. When he filed for divorce in December, a source close to the quirky British comedian told PEOPLE that kids were “definitely important to him.” But Perry simply wasn’t ready, admitting in her film that “a baby can’t have a baby, and I’m still a baby.” Adds the Perry pal: “She’s young. She knows she has a lot of maturing to do, and she won’t go into another relationship until she does.”

Perry’s new guy, Florence + the Machine guitarist Robert Ackroyd, might want to take note. While the two keep in touch on the road via text messages and Skype, “it’s not serious-or exclusive,” says the Perry pal. “He’s easygoing and a no-drama kind of guy,” says another source of Ackroyd, 29, who at least doesn’t have to worry that Perry’s pining for her ex. “She is totally over Russell,” says the friend. Or as Perry puts it, “I feel like I’ve got a second chance at a brilliant life.”