Paloma Faith admits it's "confusing" still getting on well with her ex Leyman Lahcine

She admitted to Reader's Digest: "These break-ups are a far cry from the cut-and-runs of youth where you just don't see each other again.

"When you have young children you have to [keep in touch] because you're constantly doing handovers. That can get confusing."

She added: "I have a really good relationship with the kids' dad so sometimes it's like, 'What are we doing? Why are we not together?'. But the key to the success of our relationship now is the absence of expectation. Expectation leads to disappointment."

On the pressure having children puts on a relationship, she said: "We put on so many different masks in relationships, then when you have children you see each other at your absolute worst, when you've not slept for a year. It's really hard. I think people who stay together are amazing. I don't know anyone who says, 'I love my husband'; they all say, 'He's the most annoying person!'".

Paloma recently admitted she hates the word "co-parenting" because fathers shouldn't be "over applauded for actually parenting".

The 42-year-old singer hit out at the way mother-and-fatherhood is portrayed in society.

Appearing on ITV breakfast show 'Lorraine' in the UK, she said: "I don't like the word co-parent because co implies it is 50/50 and I don't believe it is.

"There are definitely some men pulling in a lot of the work.

"But in the majority of cases it is the woman who deals with the mental load that comes with being a parent and also has them the majority of the time."

She insisted she wasn't attacking her ex, but argued there didn't need to be another word used for being a dad.

She added: "I'm not saying that I don't think my children's dad is amazing, but I think we need to say what is actually happening and not over compliment the men.

"So I don't use the word 'co-parent', I say, 'Oh my kids go to their dads a few nights a week' and I'm so happy that they do that and that they've got a lovely father.

"But let's not over compliment them because they do get that all the time... Let's not over applaud them for actually parenting."