Mae Muller was left "traumatised for life" by a "physically and emotionally" abusive relationship.
The 'I Wrote a Song' hitmaker has opened up about the ordeal she suffered when she was just a teenager and admitted she was so young, she hadn't realised love was meant to be different so stayed with the unnamed boyfriend for two years.
Speaking on the 'How to Fail' podcast, she said: “My first relationship, I was 15 so my brain probably hadn’t fully developed yet and I was with him for two and a half years...
“That relationship, even though I hate to admit it, I think it genuinely did traumatise me for life. It changed the way I saw men, saw relationships, how I viewed love and myself in a lot of ways.
"He was very, very emotionally abusive, sometimes physically abusive, and when you’re so young, I thought that was what love was."
The 25-year-old star was left feeling she was "absolutely crazy" and the source of the problems in the relationship.
She added: "It was extremely gaslight-y. He literally made me believe I was absolutely crazy. Everything you can imagine, that’s what it was.”
But Mae - who became a household name when she represented the UK at Eurovision this year - has learned from her ordeal and has vowed to never tolerate being treated with "disrespect " by a partner ever again.
She added: “Now I’m 25. I will never allow somebody to treat me like that again, never.
"The second I get a hint of disrespect, I’m out.”
And the 'Me, Myself and I' singer admitted the bad relationship had inspired a lot of her songwriting.
She said: "I probably wouldn’t have written the songs I’d written if it didn’t happen."
