Katy Perry has revealed that she was so distraught over her personal life that she sometimes cried before performing live.

The singer endured a divorce late last year and through to 2012, with husband Russell Brand separating from Perry.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Perry admitted that she was overcome with emotion at times, including before performing live. She said:

"What was going on in my personal life was so overwhelming that I had to bend over to let those tears fall straight out of my eye sockets and not my false lashes just as I'm about to go up on that ramp and sing 'Teenage Dream'. I had to smack myself across the face and say, 'These problems are my problems, they are not my audience's problems, learn to separate that'."

As previously reported, Katy Perry recently told MTV about her new single 'Wide Awake', calling it a "dose of reality".