Esquire magazine has put a fine crown on Halle Berry’s exquisite head: that of Sexiest Woman Alive.

Pleasantly enough, Halle Berry is the first to point out what an interesting choice this is. The November issue of Esquire magazine features a delicious photo spread depicting the very sexy Halle Berry wearing sexy lacey lingerie with images of former Esquire magazine covers, while the cover is a re-enactment of the December 2000 cover with Bill Clinton. Esquire celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

Halle Berry’s written acceptance speech for the magazine makes reference to past years when she may have been a more logical candidate for the sexy title. For example, seven years ago, in 2002, when she received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in “Monster’s Ball,” becoming the first and so far only African-American woman to win the respective award. Or 2002, when she donned the famous orange bikini in the James Bond installment “Die Another Day.”

Here she is today though, 42, happy in love and mother to a lovely daughter. Berry welcomed her first child a mere six months ago and this she mentions amply in her article for the magazine. Nahla, with boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, a French-Canadian model who we all know is ten years her junior, has made Berry happy to be a mother and happy as a woman, since she says she likes her body better and feels sexier as a result of having a mother.

The photos only go to prove this.

“I don’t know exactly what it means,” Berry says of the honor, “but being 42 and having just had a baby, I think I’ll take it.” She also shares the enviable title with “every woman, because every woman is a nominee for it at any moment.”

Halle Berry also shares some of the wisdom she’s gathered over the years, specifically, that being sexy is not about wearing sexy clothes or shaking “your booty until you damn near get hip dysplasia,” but rather about feeling comfortable with yourself and “loving yourself even in your most unlovable moments.”

Well thank you for the encouragement, Halle Berry, Sexiest Woman Alive of 2008.