Gary Numan says becoming a father was "shockingly difficult and traumatic"

Gary told the Sunday Times newspaper: "I was 45 when I first became a father. I thought I was ready, that I had everything worked out. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's the most difficult thing I've ever done.

"Parenthood is a moving-goalposts situation to the extreme, and each of my three daughters has moved the goalposts! All that confidence I had, the arrogance about how easy I thought it was going to be, when instead it was shockingly difficult and traumatic."

Gary is dad to Raven, 21, Persia, 19, and Echo, 17, and all three girls still live at home with their parents and the singer admits he is keen to keep them close.

He added: "Have I been a good dad? I hope so. Everyone still lives at home ... which is nice, I want to hang on to them.

"They're important to me; I want to do right by them. Whenever I've said the wrong thing in anger, it bothers me for a long time. I take my mistakes really hard. Fortunately Raven hasn't suggested I've said anything of lasting damage."

Gary previously revealed the couple were told they were not able to have children naturally so they used IVF to start a family and he admitted the process was marred by heartbreak - which included the loss of Raven's twin.

He told the Guardian newspaper: "We were told we couldn't have children naturally because we had some unexplained infertility, so we went down the IVF route.

"Gemma got pregnant first time and we couldn't believe our luck, but she miscarried at three months, which was horrible. We tried again many times without success, but then Raven came along (though her twin died), followed by Persia and Echo."