Benny Andersson has opened up about the reasons behind the break-up of Swedish pop legends ABBA and spoken about their upcoming reunion tour.

During an interview this morning (October 2) on ITV's Lorraine, the 70-year-old star explained there were several factors that contributed to the band's break-up in 1982 and it wasn't meant to be permanent.

"Things were happening in real life too, not just in [our] working life," he said. "[Anni-Frid Lyngstad and I] got divorced, [Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog] got divorced. At first we still worked together though because we knew what we had."

After ABBA originally took a break - the group never officially split – in the early 1980s, songwriting partners Benny and Björn were approached by musical maestro Tim Rice to start writing for theatre productions.

"We were on a break when Tim came along," Benny recalls. "He gave us these opportunities and afterwards, we were like what's the point in going back [to performing] because we like theatre so much?"

35 years after the band stopped, ABBA are planning to get back together for what promises to be a massive virtual reunion tour.

"If everything goes to plan, we will be back in digital form at the beginning of 2019," he said. "It is going to be a virtual tour but everything will be live.

"It will be as though we are out on the road because the whole set-up is live. It will just be us four singers that are in digital form."

Before that, Benny will be working on the movie sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Lily James and Dominic Cooper.

"I spent all summer recording the music," Benny said. "I didn't intend to but I just couldn't keep my hands away from it. If I didn't do it, I knew the music wouldn't be the way I wanted it to be.

"Lily James sang really well - good singers make the job easier. Pierce Brosnan is good too. Everyone jokes that he's not very good but I think that's just because nobody wants to see James Bond in romantic scenes like that."

Colin Firth, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan at the Mamma Mia! premiere