Katy Perry admits she needs 'soul surgery' before she has children: 'I want to emotionally elevate myself'

Katy Perry has revealed that she has no plans to start a family until she is healthy emotionally.

In a frank new interview with Glamour magazine, the 33-year-old pop star discusses her mental health and says that it is important for her that she heals from her childhood traumas before having children of her own.

"I want to emotionally elevate myself... I'm preparing myself for having a family of my own in the near future... I want to do a little bit more soul surgery before I have a family of my own so that I don't transfer any of those lingering feelings," she intimated.

"This last year has been about killing my ego, which has been really necessary for my career," she continued. "But for my personal life, it doesn't work that way. If I want to have that true balance, I have to step into being Katheryn Hudson."

The I Kissed A Girl singer was previously married to British comedian Russell Brand for 14 months and has dated John Mayer on-and-off until 2015. In 2016, she started dating Orlando Bloom but the couple parted company in 2017.

The songstress says the culmination of failed relationships and career setbacks in recent years led to her self-esteem taking a nosedive and she is struggling to rebuild it.

"I had a lot of expectations at the end of 2015 and the end of 2016 that weren't met," she told the publication. "That was the first time, in a long time, that I didn't get my way.

"I think it was the universe's way of testing me, of saying, 'We're going to see if you really do love yourself.'"

The pop star – whose parents were Pentecostal pastors – confessed that it took her personal woes to realise just how much she relied on "outside validation".

"I thought that I didn't, but once you get kicked down the mountain a little bit, you realise that the weather really is better at the top," she philosophised.