Signer Rita Ora has revealed she dated a man in his twenties as a teenager in an effort to seek validation and attention from the opposite sex.

In an interview on Lifetime with host Amanda De Cadenet, Ora said it was her first ever experience with a man.

“I was 14 when I started, when I got my first relationship with a guy,” the now 24-year-old explained.

• Oprah tells Tracy Grimshaw about suicidal thoughts
• Justin Bieber spills secrets to Aussie radio host

“I would say (he was) about 26, and you have to remember I hadn’t had a relationship before then at all. I didn’t have sex, I was very new to the whole world of a man and a female.”

“You know that’s called child abuse now?” de Cadenet asked.

“It’s child abuse, really, isn’t it?” Ora said.

“I don’t want to say that I suffered it, because I wanted it. I don’t want to say that I was forced to do it. I don’t want people to think I was abused as a kid but I was definitely more mature than I should have been at 14.”

Ora, who is currently a judge on the UK X Factor, said the relationship stemmed from her need to be wanted.

“I was almost obsessed with having a man feel like he wants me,” Ora said.

“It made me feel great and I didn’t care what he did or how old he was. I wanted it. It’s crazy.”

“I felt like I was sexy, I felt like I had a form of respect, I felt like he listened to me.

“Now I know he listened to me because he obviously wanted to have sex with me. I felt good that men fancied me.”

The ‘Poison’ singer said she altered her appearance form a young age to attract men.

“I’d wear low tops,” she explained. “I’d put red lipstick on, I’d make my hair blonder.

“My mum would just completely be like, ‘What are you doing’? I think that’s what got me dressing crazy, why I love crazy clothes. Because my mum always let me freely express myself.

“But she didn’t know that I was expressing myself because I was seeing men.”