Tim Farron has revealed he made the decision to quit as Liberal Democrat leader two weeks into the General Election campaign after facing repeated questions over whether he believed gay sex was a sin.
Mr Farron said he thought "there isn't a way forward out of this" without either compromising on his evangelical Christian faith or causing damage to his party.
He dramatically quit as Lib Dem leader on June 14, days after polling day, saying his religion had made him a "subject of suspicion".
On Friday, he told Emma Barnett on 5 Live Daily: "I made the decision about two weeks into the election campaign.
"I thought there isn't a way forward out of this without me either compromising or just causing damage to the party in the long run.
"I kind of thought well, in which case I cannot see a way I will continue to be leader into the future.
"But I kind of thought, right you've got to put that into a drawer, don't talk to anybody else about it, get on and do as good a job as you can during the election."
Mr Farron's shock announcement last month came just hours after the party's openly gay home affairs spokesman Lord Paddick said he was standing down citing "concerns about the leader's views on various issues".
The outgoing Lib Dem leader said he "compartmentalised" his decision to quit during the campaign and denied he had deceived voters who backed his party in the election.
He told 5 Live: "Well, they're giving the party the vote, and the Lib Dems, thanks to what we've done in the last two years, will continue.
"So in every election there is a reasonable chance that leaders will step down.
"But I think, you know this yourself, when you make a decision and it's in your head and you've not really shared it with anybody, not written it down, it's there to be changed.
"I went into that campaign trying to ... fight for the country I believed in."
Mr Farron also revealed that he, like Theresa May, shed a tear after the election.
"We've heard about people shedding tears in interviews with you recently," he said.
"I'm somebody who does shed tears occasionally, if things move me. Generally they are not things to do with myself. I completely held it together. I knew what I was going to do.
"I made the little statement in party headquarters and was about to kind of head off up north, and I just got this lovely text from my 15-year-old saying I'm very proud of you, and I had a cry then. Because you do don't you. But that was more really the fact that it's nice to be reminded that your children love you."