Andrea Corr has told how she spent a lot of time “suffering in silence” as she went through five miscarriages.

The Irish singer, who found fame in the 90s with sibling group The Corrs, struggled to start a family after marrying her husband Dermot Desmond in 2009.

She told the Daily Mail’s You magazine: “There was a lot of suffering in silence.

“Every time, no matter how often it happens, as soon as you discover you’re pregnant, you so quickly go into the mode of hoping and dreaming for this child – and then suddenly it’s all gone.”

Corr, now a mother of two, went on: “Every time I’d feel so sad for a life that wasn’t there any more and also really frightened that this was it.

“That I’d always miscarry.”

The Corrs
The Corrs (Neil Munns/PA)

The singer, who has opened up about her life in new memoir Barefoot Pilgrimage, also told how she used to feel “uncomfortable” with all the attention she received for her looks.

“I was very self-conscious,” said Corr, 45.

“It was like living in a room with mirrors on every wall, constantly seeing yourself from every angle.

“Thank goodness we didn’t have social media then, or I wouldn’t be here talking to you now, I couldn’t have coped.”