James Arthur has admitted he regrets sleeping around and treating girls badly after winning The X Factor.
The singer, 33, was catapulted to fame after triumphing on the reality show back in 2012 and has said it suddenly became "easy" for him to "get girls".
Speaking on the True Geordie Podcast, James said his behaviour "definitely became a problem" and he now feels bad about his antics.
He said: "All of a sudden there was no graft involved at all with getting girls and I just thought this was it, it was normal it was the culture.
"You don't have to work hard. So you go and do a show, you get a girl and, before you know it, you're just DM-ing girls left and right and sex becomes the focus."
He went on to admit he "broke a few hearts" and treated some women bady.
James explained: "I'm not exactly f**king Brad Pitt or owt but I broke a few hearts along the way and I definitely treated some girls in a way that I regret.
"Just because thought... I was getting away with it, I suppose. And I was speaking to women in a way that I'm not proud of.
"When you're in the public eye and you're getting girls, you take it for granted."
He then went on to admit he is now older and wiser and thinks a lot of his exploits with women was more about "validation" than sex.
James added: "As you get older, I've got four sisters, and I love them dearly and the thought of any man treating them like an object...
"A lot of it's for validation isn't it. But you’re punching well above your weight.
"A lot of times I wouldn’t even meet up with girls and have sex with them, it was just knowing that they were into me and that I could have had them.
"That was a problem for me at one point and it was affected my relationships. It's got me in trouble and made me look a certain way in the past that I definitely regret. Those moments are my regrets...
"People might have thought I was a womaniser... Off the back of my fame and success I got with a lot of girls, [but] I always wanted to have a connection with those girls, but I left them behind too quick."
James is in a longterm relationship with dancer Jessica Grist after first meeting her on The X Factor in 2012.
They had an on-off romance for a long time and were apart for two years before getting back together in 2017.
