Ed Sheeran has written 40 songs about a painful break-up.

The 'A-Team' hitmaker penned the emotionally raw tracks following his split from the unidentified girl last year but refuses to release the songs as they are ''a bit too dark''.

He told The Daily Mail newspaper: ''There's an entire relationship last year that no one knows about. I probably wrote 40 songs about that. I haven't used them because they were a bit too dark. It was just anger and pain. I like my songs to have a bit of musicality.''

The 23-year-old singer is no stranger to channelling his emotions through his music and is thought to have written his latest hit 'Don't' after his former love interest Ellie Goulding allegedly cheated on him with One Direction's Niall Horan.

Ed - who has never confirmed the rumours - doesn't regret releasing the song, but admitted he may have felt differently if it hadn't been such a success.

He explained: ''People jumped to that conclusion because I put the line 'we make money in the same way' in, but who is to say that wasn't about my property investment? It could have been about a property developed from Slough.

When asked if he regretted writing the track, Ed said: ''I think if it hadn't been a hit I would have done. In retrospect it worked out for me. It elevated my career.''