Nick Clegg has said he is a "human being, not a punchbag" and revealed that he is concerned about how attacks on him affect his children.
In an interview with the New Statesman, the deputy prime minister admitted he "cries regulary" to music and admitted that criticism levelled at him had left its mark.
Clegg told Jemima Khan, guest-editor of the magazine, said he tried to ignore personal abuse over his role in the coalition, but that he worried about the impact on his family.
The Lib Dem leader said he tries to ignore media criticism: "I'm a human being, I'm not a punchbag – I've got feelings. I increasingly see these images of me, cardboard cutouts that get ever more outlandish. If you wake up every morning worrying about what's in the press, you would go completely and utterly potty."
He did say that members of the public do often come up to him and express their support, but in a whisper "as if it's a guilty secret saying anything nice about Nick Clegg".
The Lib Dem leader insisted he could no longer occupy the "Lib Dem holier-than-thou, hands-entirely-clean-and-entirely-empty-type stance".
On last year's manifesto pledge not to increase tuition fees, he defended the U-turn, saying: "I have a rather old-fashioned belief that you've got to stand by what you've done and take the consequences, good or bad."
And Clegg insisted that it was not one of his main manifesto priorities: "I didn’t even spend that much time campaigning on tuition fees."
He tried to play down his relationship with the prime minister, saying they "don't regard each other as mates" and had only played tennis together once, the magazine revealing Cameron won.
Clegg added: "I don't think a coalition works unless you have a very careful balance between mutual respect and civility and also a certain hardness, as at the end of the day you are representing different views."
The deputy prime minister also avoided questions about Cameron's ties with News International, following reports that the prime minister had attended a social engagement at chief executive Rebekah Brooks' home over Christmas.
He said: "I don't know anything about Oxfordshire dinner parties. I'm assuming that they weren't sitting there talking about News International issues. Look, you're putting me in a very awkward spot. If you've got an issue with it, speak to Dave. I don't hang out in Oxfordshire at dinner parties. It's not my world. It's never going to be my world."
Clegg added: "I think that the days when newspaper barons could basically click their fingers and governments would snap to attention have gone."
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