Ellie Goulding wishes she had gotten to spend more time with Juice WRLD.

The pair collaborated on the track 'Hate Me' before the 21-year-old rapper died in December from an accidental overdose and Ellie called his death ''painfully sad''.

She told Billboard: ''I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with him. I wish we'd gotten to live that song, together... He was on the beginning of some incredibly special journey, I think, and everyone was really excited for him, we were really excited for him, and, yeah, it's just painfully sad.''

Ellie also revealed she was blown away by Juice WRLD's breakthrough hit 'Lucid Dreams' and immediately tracked him down to ask him to collaborate.

She said: ''When I'd heard 'Lucid Dreams' for the first time, I was like, 'Who is this?,' and I don't have that moment very often with artists.''

Meanwhile, Ellie, 33, has just released 'Brightest Blue', her first album in five years and she admitted she needed a break after 2015's 'Delirium'.

She explained: ''I came home [from the 'Delirium' tour] and for the very first time had days off and weeks off. It was so alien to me to have that time, that I had to kind of start reflecting on everything and unraveling my life for the past however many years, whether I wanted to or not. I knew it was time to confront everything I had been through, and then I was like, 'Wow, I'm like a woman now.'''