Hucknall apologises to women he slept with

Mick Hucknall has apologised for hurting the feelings of the hundreds of women he had sex with at the height of his fame.

The Simply Red frontman estimated that he slept with over 1,000 women at the peak of his band's success.

Hucknall told The Guardian: "I regret the philandering. In fact, can I issue a public apology through The Guardian? They know who they are, and I'm truly sorry.

"When I had the fame, it went crazy. Between 1985 and 1987, I would sleep with about three women a day, every day. I never said no. This was what I wanted from being a popstar. I was living the dream and my only regret is that I hurt some really good girls."

Explaining his actions, he added: "I wanted love from every single woman on the planet because I didn't have my mother's love.

"It was an addiction that took me to my darker period from 1996 to 2001, when I really came close to the gutter - I was more into drinking than seducing... I never really got the emotional contact that I craved."

Hucknall admitted: "A red-headed man is not generally considered to be a sexual icon."