La Roux has disclosed that a “nervous breakdown” was the reason behind her ten years away from the public eye.

In a new TikTok, the 38-year-old singer opened up about a tough chapter in both her life and career that drove her to step back from public life.

Over a clip of herself sipping a drink, set to a remix of her iconic noughties hit “Bulletproof,” she wrote: “You think you can hurt me?

“I literally wrote and sung this song, lost my voice, had a nervous breakdown and disappeared for 10 years.”

In a recent interview with AnOther, La Roux — whose real name is Elly Jackson — discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic affected her 2020 album Supervision.

Looking ahead to the launch of her new LP, she said: “Supervision [my third album] being totally marred by the [Covid-19] pandemic wasn’t ideal, so I’m very excited.”

La Roux is due to release the follow-up, Old Flames, in November. She acknowledged that the six-year gap came about because she wasn’t certain there was “any point” in putting out new music after her time away.

She added: “I’d only just finished my last album when the pandemic hit, so I wasn’t ready to start making a new record instantly. You need a gap before you make new work.

“I started f****** around with new sounds and new ideas. It took a couple of years to know if I even wanted to make another record or if there was any point.”

La Roux also admitted she disliked being compared to David Bowie and Tilda Swinton.

Speaking about her style influences, which also include Grace Jones, she said: “Bowie came to me much later. People used to tell me I looked like Tilda Swinton and David Bowie, so then I started looking at them.”

Asked whether the comparisons prompted her to emulate their style, she replied: “No, quite the opposite. It really annoyed me. I didn’t want to be like someone else, I wanted to be my own thing. I had been trying to look as weird as possible so I didn’t look like anyone else, and then I got compared to these two people. It was really f****** annoying.