Sting likes to "dress up" his wife for sex so their love life doesn't become "pedestrian".

The 'Fields Of Gold' singer has been married to film producer Trudie Styler for 18 years and said their keenness to experiment in the bedroom helps keep their passion for each other alive.

He told America's Harper's Bazaar magazine: "When we see each other, it's romance. I don't think pedestrian sex is very interesting. There's a playfulness we have; I like the theatre of sex.

"I like to look good. I like her to dress up. I like to dress her up."

The 59-year-old rocker - who has four children with Trudie and two other kids from a previous marriage - never takes his 56-year-old wife for granted, and believes they are still "lucky" to enjoy one another's company.

He added: "Romantic? We like tawdry. We treat every day as it comes. Relationships aren't easy, and I don't think they're particularly natural, but we're lucky because we actually like each other. We love each other - that's a given - but Trudie lights my world up when she comes into a room. I don't take her for granted."

The couple have long been rumoured to be practitioners of tantric sex - a practice which has its roots in Hinduism, and sees couples lock into static 'sexual embrace' to make love for hours at a time - but Sting says this is more than simply a physical practice.

He said in 2003: "Sex is only the surface. Tantra is much too complex for me to discuss. But it's about reconnecting with the world of the spirit through everyday things. My church happens to be the person I live with. She is my connection to the sacred."

Sting and Trudie - who once told radio host they enjoy swingers' parties, only to later retract the statement - have also famously opened up their New York apartment to a magazine in 2007, revealing their bedroom to be adorned with erotic prints of almost nude women.