Annie Lennoxsometimes felt that being intelligent was a ‘barrier’ in some of her past relationships. Photo: Ian West/PA Wire

Pop star Annie Lennox has blasted misogynistic men, saying she played dumb as a younger woman to avoid making them feel “eclipsed”.

The Eurythmics star, 59, who described herself as “a feminist who loves men”, said she had not done it consciously but that people wanted to seem “magnetic and appealing” which meant there was a sense that women were not equal to men.

She told the Sunday Times she was a “serial monogamist” who had sometimes felt that being intelligent was a “barrier” in some of her relationships.

Lennox told the paper’s Style magazine: “As a younger person, most people want to be deemed magnetic and appealing.

“In that mix, as a woman there was a sense you were not equal to a man, and I think there still is. You don’t ever want to eclipse a man. A man doesn’t want to feel eclipsed by a woman.”

Lennox, who has sold tens of millions of albums worldwide with Eurythmics and as a solo star, said she would not rule out plastic surgery, but would rather stay natural than resemble women who look like a “frozen mask with lips and like they’ve been punched in the face”.

As a woman there was a sense you were not equal to a man

In a wide-ranging interview the Aberdeen-born singer-songwriter also criticised her fellow Scots, saying post-independence referendum that they need to “put their hatred of the English aside and grow up just a little bit”.

She continued: “We should be way beyond that now. It’s actually slightly embarrassing. It’s nonsense. The English are no longer the terrible overlord of the Scots. Westminster I understand they have an issue with, but we all have an issue with Westminster.”