Chris Hughes was left "heartbroken" by his split from Jesy Nelson

He said: "I had a break-up so I needed to focus on myself. It happened right at the start of lockdown. It was tough.

"Everyone says time's a healer, and you don't believe it in the moment.

"I don't think I'd ever felt heartbroken before."

However, the 27-year-old hunk admitted he was grateful he'd had the time to process the break up away from other people.

Speaking on Vicky Pattison's 'The Secret To...' podcast,he said: "A couple of weeks down the line, you start thinking about it less and less as each day passes.

"Next thing, good as gold. My manager was a shoulder to cry on.

"Lockdown has been good for me in that sense. People who know you, when you say you're fine, they can see it in your face that you're not. But everyone says, 'You're back to yourself now'."

Prior to their split, Chris had described asking the 'Black Magic' singer to be his girlfriend as his "proudest moment".

He said: "My proudest moment is asking my girlfriend to be my girlfriend and she said yes. Yeah, that was a nice moment.

"She's just wonderful, we're best friends. We spend so much time together. I went on tour with her so much, I went to my ninth show the other day since they've been touring, they've been touring a couple of months. Yeah, proper fan girling. We're just best friends, I love it."