At some stage, she needs a bit of love (5)
I believe the answer is:
vesta
'bit of love' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'at some stage she needs a' is the wordplay.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'some stage she needs' becomes 'vest' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'vest' next to 'a' is 'VESTA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vesta that I've seen before include "Hearth goddess; a match" , "Roman goddess of the hearth" , "heavenly body" , "Roman goddess; match" , "Asteroid; goddess; match" .)