Will Young felt ''seedy'' being attracted to his male friends as a teenager.

The 41-year-old singer studied at Wellington College in Berkshire, South East England, and he's admitted to hating himself for being sexually attracted to his school pals.

He shared: ''I got to be in the showers with a lot of boys that I fancied, and it made sense that at the time I might be turned on by that.

''But I just felt so disgusting. Properly wrong. Seedy. Manipulative. That I was watching my friends and storing it up in the w*** bank. I felt intrinsically evil.''

Will remained quiet about his sexuality for a long time, but things became increasingly uncomfortable for him as he progressed through adolescence.

He told The Times newspaper: ''I would wear red New Balance trainers and I became fixated that somebody would see the fact I was wearing red trainers meant I was obviously gay. The fact I was always wearing vintage floral shirts didn't seem to cross my mind for some reason.

''But the red trainers were a source of constant worry.''

Will won the inaugural series of 'Pop Idol' in 2002, but he felt under pressure at the time to play down his sexuality.

He explained: ''I was slightly neutered, really.

''But also I was a realist. I wasn't stupid. I wanted to have a career and there are fewer gay people in the world. Like, who wants to see me kiss a man in a pop video? Maybe one in ten people? I used to say, 'Just do the maths.'''

Will still regrets not speaking out in 2009, when Chris Moyles dedicated a chunk of his BBC radio show to mocking him and his sexuality via a series of spoof songs.

Reflecting on the incident, he said: ''It still makes me feel sad in a way, because it did affect how important I felt my sexuality was, and because I didn't stand up for myself.''