Justin Bieber has spoken about his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez in a new interview, in which he seeks to set a few misconceptions straight and explain why things broke down.

“We were so in love,” the 21 year old said to Complex magazine. “Nothing else mattered. We were all about each other. But when it's like that and you get your value from that, people will always disappoint you. Your girl or your dude, they're always going to disappoint you. Your full identity can't be in that person. My identity was in her. Her identity was in me.”

Justin BieberJustin Bieber in September 2015

Bieber and Gomez were in a relationship from December 2010 until January 2013, but for another couple of years tabloid reports occasionally emerged that the pair were in an on-off romance. Things finally ended for good roughly 12 months ago, but his new single ‘What Do You Mean?’, which he performed at the VMAs last month and has topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, is about a confusing and frustrated relationship.

More: Justin Bieber is back on top of the UK Singles Chart with ‘What Do You Mean?’

When asked by the interviewer about what he had learned from his time with Selena, now 23, Bieber bluntly replied. “Don't fall in love.”

“No, I'm just kidding,” he continued. “I learned a lot. I moved in with my girlfriend when I was 18. Started my own life with her. It was a marriage kind of thing. Living with a girl, it was just too much at that age. When stuff would happen, I would lose my freakin' mind, and she would lose her mind, and we would fight so hard because we were so invested in each other. Love is a choice. Love is not a feeling. People have made it seem in movies that it's this fairy tale.”

For her part, Selena recently told Elle magazine that, despite their turbulent relationship, she will “forever support him and love him”.

More: Justin Bieber explains his tears after his MTV VMAs performance