She also admits that her first feelings on discovering her true sexual orientation were of shame because she was a Catholic. She also says she wants to have children.

In an interview with former Hot Press writer Jason O'Toole for The Mail On Sunday, Harte says, "It took me a while to actually come to terms with it. To accept it myself. It was depressing. I couldn't deal with it, I couldn't be myself. It was really hard. I took a break from music because I was in a bad place. I was really reclusive. I lost contact with my friends.

"The light at the end of the tunnel was the coming out," the singer, who appeared on the cover of the Hot Press Yearbook in 2008, says. "It’s not that I’ve never wanted to come out of the closet - I wish it wasn’t an issue. But it’s a difficult thing to do. A lot of people will have a different perception of you after you do come out.'

Leanne discovered she was gay at the age of seven, and tried dating boys but, she recalls: "I kissed a boy once and it was a horrific experience." She finally accepted she was gay when she first kissed another woman at the end of her teens. She says: "It was awkward but great. It was so liberating. I was able to be happy within myself. That’s where I am at, now I’m ready to go back to music."

Her parents initially found it difficult to accept that she was homosexual. "I waited until I had a girlfriend before telling my mother because I wanted to be sure myself," Leanne says. "At first, she was great. ... Then she started to worry about me going to heaven or hell. She was very upset."

Leanne was initially afraid to tell her father because she feared she might be "kicked out" of the family home. When she did tell him, he broke down in tears.

Harte also says "I definitely want to get married and to have children. I’m a woman, I’m able to have a child, so why not? I really want that."