Florence Welch of Florence +The Machine has said that wanting a family “might not be as simple” for her “as it is [her] male counterparts.”

Welch, who returned with new single ‘King’ this week, made the comment in a statement that accompanied the release.

“As an artist, I never actually thought about my gender that much. I just got on with it,” Welch said in the statement.

She continued: “I was as good as the men and I just went out there and matched them every time.

“But now, thinking about being a woman in my thirties and the future, I suddenly feel this tearing of my identity and my desires. To be a performer but also to want a family might not be as simple for me as it is for my male counterparts.”

Welch continued: “I had modelled myself almost exclusively on male performers, and for the first time I felt a wall come down between me and my idols as I have to make decisions they did not.”

The new song’s lyrics also allude to this when she sings “We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children/ About the world ending and the scale of my ambition/ And how much is art really worth…I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king.”

While the next Florence + The Machine album has still yet to be officially announced, ‘King’ marks the band’s first new music release since 2021’s ‘Call Me Cruella’, which featured in the Disney film Cruella.

They are also set to make their live comeback this summer, playing a host of European headline festival sets. Welch and her band will headline Norway’s Øya, Finland’s Flow and Madrid’s Mad Cool. No UK dates have been announced yet.

Elsewhere, it was recently confirmed that Welch will score a new Broadway adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

“This book has haunted me for a large part of my life. It contains some of my favourite lines in literature,” Welch said of the new project in a statement.

“Musicals were my first love, and I feel a deep connection to Fitzgerald’s broken romanticism. It is an honour to have been offered the chance to recreate this book in song.”