Olly Murs played his new heartbreak album to his ex-girlfriend.

He said: "I did play it to my girlfriend ... out of respect and being a gentleman.

"I didn't want her to be out somewhere listening to the radio or hear it on TV.

"I wanted to speak to her about it and say, 'These are the songs.' I just played it to her in my car.

"We're still friends, we get on great. She loved the songs and she wished me all the best."

The 32-year-old singer - who dated Francesca for three years - admits the split took its toll on him when it came to writing new tracks for his album as he no longer felt like penning "happy, feel good" music.

He said: "We broke up in September last year just before the madness kicked off with 'X Factor'.

"This year in January I went back into the studio to start writing the album.

"It was a bit different for me on this album because normally I do these happy, feel good tracks but this time when I walked into the studio it was a little bit different. I wasn't feeling that energy of writing something that's 'let's all dance and have a good time'.

"I just started writing and it was quite nice, a little bit of therapy. It's for me like a moving on record."

While Olly pours his heart out on the upcoming record, he insists it is not completely "sad".

Speaking on 'Loose Women', he added: "It's not a really sad album. It has some sad songs on it but it's from heartbreak until the moving on process.

"There are a couple of ballads on there. We've got a couple of collaborations which we are fixing up at the minute.

"I'm super excited about it. It's just great to be doing music again. I can't wait for people to hear it."