Peter Andre has been left “heartbroken” by the death of one of his fans

The 'Behind Closed Doors' singer struck up a friendship with 104-year-old Ivy Bean on social networking website twitter and came to view her as like a "grandmother" to him.

He said: "I was heartbroken to hear that Ivy Bean, the oldest person on twitter, passed away last week at the age of 104.

"As most of you know, Ivy and I had become friends over the last year and I loved her. She was like a grandmother figure and such an inspiration to me. A lot of older people have no interest in the modern world and I thought it was amazing that she embraced twitter."

Despite his sadness, the 37-year-old singer is grateful that he was able to speak to Ivy shortly before she passed away.

He added in his column for new! magazine: "Ivy's carer, Pat Wright, called me a couple of days before she died to say that she wasn't feeling too good and I got to speak to Ivy one final time. I told her I loved her and how wonderful she was and I'm so glad I got the chance to do that. I'll miss you, Beany."