James Arthur has revealed his song 'Emily' is about the daughter he lost to an ectopic pregnancy

He sings on the stripped-back song: "I needed life and life came and gave me Emily/ You make me a better man than I’ll ever be, ever be, ever be, because of you, Emily."

The 33-year-old pop star had suggested it was penned about his future child at the time of its release because he wasn't ready to talk about it.

Appearing on 'The Andy Jaye Podcast', he admitted: "To be honest, when it first came out I sort of billed it as that, but I spoke to my partner, and at the time it was a realistic prospect. She was pregnant.

"Sadly it didn’t work out. It wasn’t far, it was a couple of months and she had an ectopic pregnancy. So she lost the child, and I didn’t really want to talk about it.

"But she actually said, 'I think it’s really important that you do' – just because there’s so little information, and I would echo that actually.

"I remember at the time saying, 'what, so you’ve got to wait 14 weeks', or whatever it is, before you can even celebrate this, and I was writing the songs about it – I’m going to be a dad.

"I was thinking about having the hopes and fears anybody would have when being faced with having a child. And sadly it didn’t work out."

James is hopeful he will become a dad and wants to use the same moniker if he has a daughter.

He continued: "But the song was special to us, and we felt like it was one of the stronger songs on the record.

"And the record label were like 'we think you should release this song'.

I guess to say, this is a song to my future child, which I still would call my child Emily. So it made sense to put it out like that.

"Sadly, I was having a child. I guess it’s a bit weird people hearing it, what, he doesn’t have a kid and he’s talking about that.

"It’s a scary place to be, and as the man, you just want to be there for them, just put your own sadness aside at the time. It’s not about you.

It was a sad time, we moved forward, and hopefully, there’s blessings to come in the future."

Jessica was a backing dancer on the TV talent show he triumphed on and they embarked on a relationship in 2012.

The pair went their separate ways in 2015 before getting back together two years later, but they broke up again this year.