Poet Benjamin Zephaniah has revealed that he hit one of his ex-girlfriends.

The 60-year-old told a radio presenter that the way that he had treated some former partners was 'terrible' and admitted he had lost his temper.

He said that as he had got older he had 'really regretted' his actions and had apologised to the ex-girlfriend.

It comes as his autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah, is set to be released this week, BBC News reports.

The 60-year-old told a radio presenter that the way that he had treated some former partners was 'terrible' and admitted he had lost his temper

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'The way I treated some of my girlfriends was terrible. At one point I was violent.

'I could lose my temper sometimes. There was one girlfriend I had and I actually hit her a couple of times.

'As I got older I really regretted it and it burned my conscience so badly, it really ate at me.

Mr Zephaniah said that his increasing involvement in politics, especially race and gender issues in the UK and South Africa, gave him a different view of women.

He said: 'I remember I was on a march and I was saying Freedom! International Freedom!, and I thought, I just left my girlfriend at home and told her not to leave the house.

It comes as his autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah, is set to be released this week

'I was being an oppressor and a hypocrite, and at that moment I just stopped and said, I'm going to think for myself.

He said the experience had inspired a poem in which he wrote about 'struggling together now' and includes the line: 'How you talk about life and justice when you can't handle domestic crisis?'

Mr Zephaniah broke into the literary world while performing dub poetry alongside stand-up comedians and punk bands in 1980s London.

He made himself known to a new generation through his role in BBC series Peaky Blinders.